BOSTON — Trailing 2-1 to the New Jersey Devils in the third period Thursday at TD Garden, the Boston Bruins were in desperate search of an equalizer.
They got just the opposite.
Boston had a pretty good opportunity in front of it, winning a face-off in its offensive zone. The puck bounced to Torey Krug at the point, and the defenseman launched a shot. Shortly after it took flight, it was blocked by a standing Blake Coleman and careened out into the neutral zone. Coleman fought off Krug and gave chase to the puck, finally corralling it right after it trickled into the left face-off circle in his attacking zone.
Brandon Carlo had caught up to Coleman and tried to stop him with an underwhelming stick check, but it was nary a worry for the forward as he buried the visitors’ third goal past Jaroslav Halak.
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The Bruins ultimately lost 5-2.
It was a momentum-shifting goal, and proved to be the one that would put the game out of reach. Given how far down the ice the puck traveled, it would seem logical Halak would have come out of the net to try and swat it to safety.
After the game, the B’s netminder explained why he stayed put.
“Yeah (there was hesitation) because, you know, the puck was bouncing,” Halak said. “It was coming at a pretty good speed and it started slowing down so I was going to go for it but then I didn’t think I would be able to get it and that it would be an easy tap-in for him. So I tried to stay in and unfortunately it still went in so it was one of those.”
Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy wished Halak had played the puck, but trusted his goaltender’s judgement enough to know there’s a reason he didn’t.
“It looked like he could’ve came out” Cassidy said. “Jaro’s been pretty good playing the puck, so I’m going to trust him to make the right call there, but it certainly looked like he could’ve. The last two games – the puck plays with the goalies, maybe it’s that time of year where it creeps into your game, and it’s going to happen. It just happened to happen for two games, but at the end of the day he didn’t.
“I hope he makes the save, but the guy’s coming with a lot of speed,” Cassidy added. “That kid, he can really fly. He’s underrated, finishes plays. In hindsight, I wish he had come out and given it a shot, but that’s neither here nor there.”
While it wasn’t Halak’s best showing in a Bruins uniform, there’s only so much blame he can be shouldered with in the result. Although the Bruins still were in striking distance when Coleman’s tally happened, Boston very much deserved to lose Thursday night, so a different play by Halak likely only would have prolonged the inevitable.
