Bruins-Lightning Game 5 Takeaways: Thoughts, Observations From Boston’s 3-2 Loss

The Boston Bruins’ season is over after a 3-2, double-overtime loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday night in Toronto.

Here are a few thoughts, observations and takeaways from Game 5 of the teams’ second-round Stanley Cup Playoffs series.

— The Bruins and Lightning played five games, and Boston scored just five times in 5-on-5 play. It’s hard to win like that.

A lot of those even-strength issues seemed to stem from an inability to do two things: get to the front of the net — to create traffic in front of Andrei Vasilevskiy — and consistently get pucks on net. The Lightning are very good. Their defensemen are very good. They were committed to blocking shots. So, yes, the Bruins needed more even-strength production, but you also have to tip your cap sometimes.

— We’ll never know for sure how much the NHL pause affected the Bruins, but it’s pretty clear it didn’t help.

— Jaroslav Halak certainly struggled at times against Tampa, but Game 5 easily was his best performance of the series. He gave Boston a chance to win, and that’s all you can ask.

Once again, Halak was victimized by some tough goals. Tampa’s first goal came on a wicked deflection from Ondrej Palat. The second was another deflection that Halak got a blocker on and could have just as easily gone wide but instead found the back of the net. And good luck with trying to stop Victor Hedman’s double-overtime winner.

This is what Halak was dealing with as that puck zipped by to end Boston’s season:

Bruce Cassidy called it an “outstanding” effort from his goalie.

“As far as Jaro goes, he stopped everything that he literally could,” the Bruins coach told reporters. “So tons of credit to him. And their goalie is obviously good, too. He made some big saves and it was a night where both goalies were on.”

— If there’s a second guess for Cassidy, it’s why he didn’t split up the Bruins’ top line earlier. Boston’s offense got an undeniable shot in the arm when David Pastrnak moved to the second line, with Ondrej Kase riding shotgun on the top line. That’s easy for us to say, though. It’s also easy to see why the head coach wouldn’t want to split up his best line — one of the best in the entire sport — when he needed a win in the worst way.

— Injuries put Cassidy and the Bruins into a tough spot for Game 5. Boston had to put both Anders Bjork and Jack Studnicka into the lineup with the season on the line.

Turns out, that actually jump-started the third line. The trio, headed by Charlie Coyle, was Boston’s most consistent unit all night. They drove possession throughout the entire game, but they just couldn’t bury anything.

Maybe there’s something there. It will be interesting to see if those three skate together early next season. Acquiring Coyle — and re-signing him at a manageable number — remains some of general manager Don Sweeney’s best work.

— Quick note of appreciation for Sean Kuraly. Maybe water always was going to find its level, and the Lightning — the better team — were going to win the series no matter what. But the tide certainly turned when Kuraly went down with an injury and missed Games 2 through 5.

The fourth line — a strength of the Bruins all season — became a relative liability the rest of the series. According to Natural Stat Trick, the Bruins’ fourth line allowed eight scoring chances in Game 5 and generated none.

Kuraly’s absence also was felt on the penalty kill, and his versatility would have been valuable, as Cassidy was forced to shuffle his lines later in the series.

— Regardless of what happens with Zdeno Chara, the Bruins have a cornerstone defenseman in Charlie McAvoy. It’s hard to imagine it’s been only three years since the Boston University product made his NHL debut in the playoffs against Ottawa.

Since then, he’s become a legit first-pairing defenseman, something he proved again Monday night. McAvoy logged a team-high 36:39 of ice time, despite missing eight minutes in the third period after taking a scary-looking hit from Cedric Paquette in the corner. When McAvoy returned, he didn’t miss a beat. He played with a ton of confidence as he skated the puck up the ice for a few offensive rushes in addition to playing strong defensively in his own end.

— What now? That’s the obvious question about these Bruins following an earlier-than-wanted exit for Boston. There obviously will be plenty of time to get into all of the roster decisions that loom — especially with no real start date for the 2020-21 season in sight — and we’ll tackle those when they arrive.

Chara’s future is the biggest storyline, of course, as even he’s unsure what the future holds. If he’s not in Black and Gold whenever next season begins, it truly is an end of an era.

Even so, it feels like this is at least the end of a chapter in the bigger book. Torey Krug’s free agency looms, and who knows what’s next for Tuukka Rask.

Are the Bruins built for sustained success moving forward in today’s NHL? There are plenty of questions to answer. If this is the end, there also will be plenty of reflection for one of the most successful eras of Bruins hockey.