Bruins Notes: How Justin Brazeau Reacted To Disallowed Goal

The celebration from Boston Bruins forward Justin Brazeau was short-lived.

Brazeau appeared to give the Bruins much-needed life midway through the second period when he popped the puck over the head of Blues goalie Joel Hofer and into the back of the net to cut St. Louis’ lead to 3-1.

But once Brazeau saw on-ice officials review his goal due to a coach’s challenge, he knew it wasn’t a good sign.

“I obviously didn’t see the replay before, but as soon as it gets reviewed it’s probably not going to go in your favor,” Brazeau told reporters following Boston’s 5-1 loss at TD Garden, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “So, I wasn’t expecting it to count.”

Brazeau was proven correct as the referees disallowed his goal. Officials deemed that Brazeau was offsides on the play before he scored 18 seconds later.

“I kind of figured. I heard they were challenging for offsides, and I knew it was kind of close,” Brazeau said.

Jim Montgomery received an explanation from the referees about the controversial call and the Bruins coach said they saw it as a “battle play” instead of the puck going back into the offensive zone, per WEEI’s Scott McLaughlin.

It was a momentum-turning decision since the tally would have put the Bruins right back into the game with plenty of time still to go to make up the deficit. Instead, the Blues scored minutes later to put Boston into an even bigger hole and send them on their way to a one-sided defeat on home ice.

Here are more notes from Monday’s Bruins-Blues game:

— Montgomery pulled Jeremy Swayman, who stopped just 17-of-21 shots, with 8:45 remaining with the Bruins trailing by three and getting set for an offensive zone faceoff. The move immediately backfired on the Bruins as the Blues scored an empty-net goal 12 seconds later to put the game out of reach.

— Pavel Zacha earned an honor before the game as he was named the Second Star of the Week by the NHL. Zacha continued his hot play against the Blues by stretching his point streak to six games. He assisted on David Pastrnak’s third-period goal to give him eight points over that span.

— Brad Marchand took the play of Boston’s fourth line as a silver lining in the loss. Brazeau, Jesper Boqvist and Jakub Lauko brought plenty of energy that was recognized by the Bruins captain.

“Got to give their line a lot of credit. They tried to pull us in the fight all night long,” Marchand told reporters, as seen on NESN postgame coverage. “They play the right way, had a lot of really good opportunities, really good looks and we’re going to need them to continue to be like that down the stretch here. You need four deep lines and to be able to rely on a line like that in any situation, play against any line, it’s what allows teams to be good.”

— The Bruins are 21-8-6 at TD Garden and it was their largest defeat on home ice this season.

— It was a rewarding homecoming for Blues forward and Dorchester, Mass. native Kevin Hayes. Hayes not only finished with a goal and an assist, but he also registered a game-high plus-four rating.

— The Bruins get ready for a showdown with the archrival Montreal Canadiens on Thursday night. Puck drop from Bell Centre is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET and you can watch the game, plus an hour of pregame coverage, on NESN.