It was a tough night for the Boston Bruins, but Bruce Cassidy is choosing to take a positive note from it.
Boston traveled to Columbus to take on the Blue Jackets and found itself fighting back for most of the game. Despite coming within a goal in the second period, the Bruins ultimately lost 7-4 at Nationwide Arena. Tuukka Rask was pulled from the game after allowing five goals through less than two periods and were outshot for all but the third period.
But despite all that, Cassidy said his team gave itself “a chance to win” even after being down 5-1.
“We made it a game going into the third period, down a goal, that’s going to happen a lot on the road,” he told NESN’s Jack Edwards and Andy Brickley, as seen on “Bruins Overtime Live.” “Obviously we didn’t like how we ended up there, but bottom line was we gave ourselves a chance to win the game by coming back. Unfortunately the power play, which has been very good for us all year, weren’t able to execute, then we take a penalty and it kind of took us out of it there. Not a whole lot of good after that and they were able to put it away.”
The head coach did note what needs to be addressed before their next game Thursday night against the Winnipeg Jets.
“We always address things after games, good and bad,” Cassidy said. “Obviously there’s some D-zone coverage down around our net we have to discuss. They got big forwards, we knew that going in. If you weren’t able to close off a cycle in a hurry then you better have good sticks and good position . We just gave up some easy goals by standing around, missed assignments. Some of it our compete. … We had some passengers tonight that just didn’t want to play hard enough against a desperate team.”
Here are some other notes from Tuesday’s Bruins-Blues game:
— Patrice Bergeron’s shorthanded goal marked his third in five games. It also was his fourth of the season, a new career-high for the center.
— Chris Wagner has three goals in his past five games.
— Charlie McAvoy dropped the gloves for just the second time in his career against Artemi Panarin in the second period.
His first fight came against Panarin’s linemate, Pierre-Luc DuBois on Dec. 18, 2017.
— Brad Marchand had two goals in the loss, bringing his season total to 30. He joined some pretty elite company in doing so.
— This was Boston’s second straight loss after the Pittsburgh Penguins broke its 19-point game streak Sunday.
Before that loss, the Bruins had not lost in regulation since Jan. 19.
