BOSTON — The Bruins had plenty of opportunities to put the game away against the Kings on Tuesday night, but those chances turned to missed opportunities as Boston fell to Los Angeles 4-3 in overtime at TD Garden.
The Kings took a 1-0 lead in the first and 2-1 edge in the second before the B’s nabbed their first advantage of the night in the third. But the visitors tied it up 3-3 with two minutes remaining to send the game to overtime.
Anders Bjork and Patrice Bergeron each looked poised to end the game and extend the B’s win streak to two, but they had to settle for a point as Anze Kopitar played difference maker in the final two minutes of extra hockey.
It wasn’t just overtime, though, that the Bruins couldn’t capitalize on chances. The third period featured many opportunities for Boston to cushion its lead, something head coach Bruce Cassidy is well-aware of.
“(We) had plenty of chances to extend the lead in the third,” he said after the game. “We’re playing the right way, seem to be in control and kind of a harmless play that we didn’t manage a puck originally on a retrieval. Could have done a better job. … Even the power play right before that (Brad Marchand) has a chance … kind of half-misses the shot, all of a sudden they’re on a breakaway. We didn’t defend that very well.”
Cassidy also noted he thought the offense created plenty of chances, it was just a matter of not converting the chances to goals.
“Offensively, certainly created enough to win the game by my estimation,” he said. “But they scored a lot of situational goals … that’s the way it goes some night.”
Here are some other notes from Tuesday’s Bruins-Kings game:
— David Pastrnak didn’t pot a goal in the loss, but he did pick up an assist on Danton Heinen’s first-period goal. And even though Tuesday’s game wasn’t as explosive as some of the others this season, Cassidy isn’t worried at all.
“Today wasn’t as noticeable as he has been,” he said. “Listen, he’s the least of my worries. Let’s put it that way.”
— Cassidy hasn’t been afraid to switch up his offensive lines. And Tuesday he made some minor switches on the blueline when he paired Brandon Carlo with Zdeno Chara and Torey Krug with Charlie McAvoy.
“We move Carlo sometimes with Zee, that’s more against Kopitar, bigger, frees Charlie up to be a little more on the attack,” he said. “We will do that going forward, have done it for the past few weeks a little bit here and there. They’ve played together, those two, and have enjoyed that part of it. Like I said, allows Charlie some shifts where he maybe gets going a little bit on the offensive side of things.”
McAvoy has yet to find the back of the net this season, but does have 12 assists.
— Heinen potted his fifth goal of the season and has earned the trust of his head coach.
“He’s a guy that we rely on for secondary scoring,” Cassidy said. “He does play on the power play for either the first or second unit we flip flop him and Jake (DeBrusk), so we trust him to be able to contribute there. … Listen, I move him all over the place because I feel he can figure out what’s required on that line on the fly. He’s a good cerebral player. So, yeah, he works hard, Danton is trying to keep growing his game, and he does a good job for us most nights.”
— The B’s welcome the New York Islanders to TD Garden on Thursday as they look to right the ship and begin a new win streak.
