Miles Wood knows he might’ve cost his team their season opener Thursday night.
The New Jersey Devils forward, who is as exciting to watch as he is erratic (and occasionally boneheaded), had not one, but two interference penalties on Boston Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask.
Both times he was in the box for running the netminder, the Bruins scored.
The first collision came at 17:02 in the opening period, and 38 seconds into the man advantage, Brad Marchand put the Bruins up 1-0.
Then, at 11:13 in the third period, Wood ran Rask once more. And with just a few seconds left on that power play, Nick Ritchie put the Bruins ahead 2-1.
Had he stayed out of the box, we might be talking about a result different than the 3-2 win the Bruins walked away with after Marchand’s clincher in the shootout.
“Those two calls on me were extremely selfish, I’ll put the blame on me, that shouldn’t happen,” Wood said after the game, over Zoom.
The interesting wrinkle in this season is the number of baseball-style series teams will play in the regular season. So, the Bruins and Devils will meet again Saturday afternoon. What level of retribution the Bruins are seeking remains to be seen.
