All good things must come to an end including the Bruins’ seven-game win streak.
Boston fell to the Nashville Predators on Tuesday night at TD Garden in a game where the Bruins looked a bit tired, didn’t start on time and got too cute on the power play. They did avoid the shutout, though, when David Pastrnak potted goal No. 52 with less than a second to go.
Here are four takeaways from Tuesday’s loss.
The power play continues to be a problem
In a game riddled with sloppiness, the power play continued to be the Bruins’ most glaring issue. There isn’t a whole lot to complain about when it comes to the 2022-23 Black and Gold team, but when they’re on the man advantage, it’s as if they’re trying too hard to make something happen. Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery doesn’t believe net-front presence is the problem and still doesn’t want to make too many changes.
“We’ve changed it up quite a bit in the last month,” Montgomery told reporters. “Change isn’t always the answer, although it seems like the easiest answer. It’s players committing to doing the right thing. We didn’t have our A-game (Tuesday).
” … I think it’s in guys’ heads. People are trying to be perfect. We don’t get success right away, we’re not recovering pucks, that’s when you know that you’re not playing fast on the power play. We take a shot and we’re not on the rebound or wherever it goes.
“They cleared a lot of pucks after we took shots to the net. When you’re on top of your power play, you’re converging at the net, you’re coming up with those pucks.”
The Bruins went 0-for-5 on the power play in Tuesday’s loss, and maybe the outcome would have been different had they converted on at least one of those opportunities. Boston already clinched the Atlantic Division, so its spot in the Stanley Cup playoffs is guaranteed, but fixing the power play woes should be front of mind before the quest for the Cup begins.
“We’re forcing play. We’re disjointed and disconnected,” Patrice Bergeron told reporters. “I think we have to go back to hard and simple. Same thing 5-on-5. The power play is no different. You have to work for loose pucks and retrieve pucks. When you’re one and done, it’s hard to really capitalize on chances.”
B’s took Preds lightly
The Bruins were bound to have a loss like the one Tuesday. They’ve dominated their way through the season and are in the final stretch of games, but couldn’t generate anything against Nashville until — quite literally — the final seconds. We’ve seen a plethora of third-period comebacks by Boston this season, but there was no magic in the final 20 minutes.
“It wasn’t only the powerplay that stunk (Tuesday), there was a lot of facets of our game that weren’t at the level and the standard that we expect,” Montgomery told reporters. “For whatever reason we laid an egg tonight.”
Montgomery switched his forward lines for most of the third period. The bench boss put Jake DeBrusk with David Krejci and Pavel Zacha and plugged Pastrnak back with Bergeron and Brad Marchand. Nothing Montgomery did seemed to light a spark, though.
“We just didn’t play to our game,” Bergeron told reporters. “We didn’t play to our standard…I think when you do that, that’s the result you’re gonna get. It doesn’t matter how good you are. I think you have to respect how you want to play the game, and tonight was one of those nights where we kinda did it to ourselves.
“No disrespect. … I think they played a great game. They did what they had to do. But we just didn’t execute. That’s what you’re gonna get.”
Tough stretch catching up
The Bruins have eight games remaining and have had a tough schedule in the final weeks of the season. It’s understandable if fatigue has started to set in a little bit, especially when they’ve played tough opponents — and ones they potentially could see in the playoffs — that want to prove they can beat the Bruins.
“We’re going into our fifth week of four (games) in five (days),” Montgomery told reporters. “You’re going to have peaks and valleys with your energy levels, and we try and monitor it the best we can, but the schedule is unforgiving right now so we’re going to lay eggs every once in a while.”
Montgomery has hinted at giving some veteran players rest ahead of the Stanley Cup playoffs, and we saw that in Sunday’s shootout win over the Carolina Hurricanes. But the Bruins had a full roster against a Nashville team that Marchand said the B’s “disrespected.”
“This is probably the toughest schedule I’ve ever seen or been part of, but we obviously took them lightly,” said Marchand. “We seem to get up for the games that – the teams we could potentially face down the road, and I think we just were a little disrespectful of the game tonight against this team.
“Definitely fatigue comes into it, but we’re going to run into situations where we’re tired moving forward, and we’ve still got to be able to show up, but it is what it is. Learn from it and move on.”
Presidents’ Trophy has to wait another day
The Bruins could have won their fourth Presidents’ Trophy on Tuesday had they won after Hurricanes lost in regulation to the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Eastern Conference’s No. 1 seed probably is back of mind for the Bruins, but another chance will present itself Thursday when they host the Columbus Blue Jackets. If Boston wins, it will clinch the trophy.
Puck drop from TD Garden is set for 7 p.m. ET.
