It had to be an odd feeling for the Boston Bruins skating off the ice at TD Garden on Thursday night.
For the first time this season, the Bruins fell in regulation at home with the red-hot Seattle Kraken earning a 3-0 shutout win. Boston’s home record now stands at 19-1-3.
It’s stunning it took until the midway point of the Bruins’ season for that to occur, but Boston wasn’t nearly as sharp as it has been in front of its home fans. And Bruins coach Jim Montgomery thought the Kraken outworked his team as well.
“I think they were a little more tenacious than we were,” Montgomery told NESN’s Jack Edwards and Andy Brickley on the network’s postgame coverage. “I thought they were harder at both net fronts and they capitalized on a lot turnovers that they forced upon us.
“It was a great run without losing a game. It took us to our 23rd game to lose in regulation at home. That’s great. Now we got to see how we respond on Saturday night against the Maple Leafs who are right behind us.”
Boston’s offense came up completely empty for the first time this season despite having some strong scoring chances against Martin Jones, who the Bruins traded away during the 2015 offseason.
David Pastrnak had two tremendous opportunities, one coming on a breakaway in the second period that Jones, who recorded 27 saves, stopped and another in the waning minutes of the final frame when the Bruins star missed an open side of the net off a one-timer during a 6-on-5 situation.
Coming off a three-game California road trip, Montgomery felt his team had its skating legs, but lamented the mental mistakes the Bruins made as he felt it served as one of the biggest differences in coming out on the losing end.
“Seattle’s closing defensively, it’s the fastest I think we’ve played against someone in their tracking end, their D-zone coverage,” Montgomery said. “I just felt we were mentally slow. There was people open and our players who usually see those plays weren’t seeing them. So, it just told me we (had) a little bit of mental fatigue for whatever reason.”
Here are more notes from Thursday’s Bruins-Kraken game:
— Joona Koppanen, who was called up with the Bruins sending Chris Wagner down to Providence, made his NHL debut against the Kraken. It wasn’t the most eventful debut for the the 24-year-old Koppanen, who centered Boston’s fourth line. He logged just 8:50 of ice time — the second-fewest minutes among Boston forwards — and won five faceoffs but finished as a minus-one.
“It was an awesome experience, of course,” Koppanen told reporters as seen on NESN postgame coverage. “Been working hard for many years now and kind of like dream come true. It would be nice to win, of course, but the game is still the game, so it’s nice to get that in.”
— Linus Ullmark ended up as the tough-luck loser as he played well between the pipes by stopping 28 shots. It was the first regulation defeat Ullmark suffered since Nov. 5 against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
— The Bruins entered the contest with an NHL-best 85.5% penalty-kill percentage, and only improved upon that mark with the penalty kill being a bright spot in the loss. Boston was 3-for-3 when shorthanded.
— The Bruins have another big test Saturday night when they host the rival Toronto Maple Leafs. Puck drop from TD Garden is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET, and you can watch the game, plus an hour of pregame coverage on NESN.
