Bruins Comeback Earns Them a Point

(Photo: Alan Sullivan)

The Boston Bruins are certainly becoming known as the “comeback kids” in their recent games. In fact, going into Thursday night’s game, they were 7-1-2 when allowing the first goal and were 3-3-2 when trailing by two goals at any point in the game.

Certainly, that is not a recipe for success, and eventually it could catch up with them. In fact, as Thursday’s game against the Chicago Blackhawks continued it was looking as though there would be no come back for the “comeback kids.” For the first time this season, the Bruins found themselves trailing 3-0 in the third period after Alex Debrincat notched his sixth of the season just 17 seconds into the final period.

While Boston continues to be without Patrice Bergeron, who is out with a lower body injury, the lines are sometimes up in the air. Going into Thursday’s game, head coach Bruce Cassidy and his assistant coaches were continuing to use Charlie Coyle as the first line center between Brad Marchand and Danton Heinen, while David Krejci centered Jake DeBrusk and David Pastrnak on the second.

David Backes’ return has proved beneficial. His intangibles in the locker room do not show up in the stats, and that is something he is always good at, but since his return from injury, he has had his first goal of the season, against Montreal on December 1st, and an assist on Thursday when he managed to split the defensemen and then draw a couple of forwards to him in the right circle, where he fired one on the Blackhawk’s goaltender, Robin Lehner. Lehner let up a rebound and Joakim Nordstrom was right there to rifle it home, giving the Bruins their first goal of the game at 1:49 of the third period.

Despite having outshot the Blackhawks in the first period, the Bruins had nothing to show for it. They went zero for four on the power play during the game, which is one of the areas in which Bergeron’s absence is perhaps most keenly felt. Backes himself commented that they have been running at roughly 30 percent on the power play, which usually means at least one power play goal in the game, but they just couldn’t find the back of Lehner’s net through the first 40 minutes.

Thursday night’s game also marked the return of defenseman John Moore, who had been on long term injured reserve since the start of the season—the result of surgery on his left shoulder during the offseason. He made some strong defensive decisions in the game along with three shots and three hits, while blocking a couple of shots. However, without any consideration for this being his first game back, he also had a fight—a short one—in the game.

The fight was a result of a hit on Pastrnak—who has been targeted aggressively by opposing teams of late—by Zack Smith. Depending on the view it could be considered questionable.

“The hit on [Pastrnak], we’d have to look at that too. That’s more concerning—that’s one of our top-end guys—and see if that was within the rules,” said Coach Cassidy.

For Moore, he felt the hit needed to be addressed.

“I can’t speak for past games. All I can say is it was my turn there. I was right there. I saw it and didn’t like it, so I thought something had to be done,” he said.

Moore’s response speaks loudly of the player he is and the pride he takes in wearing the Spoked B on the front of his jersey.

“You can’t say enough about him, right? Here he is, coming off of shoulder surgery and obviously it’s a reaction thing. He’s not thinking about anything other than protecting his teammates. So that just tells you all you need to know about his character. Probably not the perfect guy in that situation coming off that injury, but good for him. He’ll earn a lot of respect in that locker room that he already had, but now even more,” said Coach Cassidy, a note of pride in his voice.

And his willingness to go to bat for Pastrnak, while not a decisive victory in the fight, may have added to the determination of the Bruins to do their best to pull at least a point from the game. At one point in the third period, the Bruins were outshooting the Blackhawks 13-4 during the third period. And it looked as though Lehner was none too pleased to all of sudden be so busy.

When Coyle was sent to the box for a roughing, and the Bruins were still down by two goals, it looked like perhaps the undisciplined reaction by Coyle with the extra jab was going to spell disaster for the home team. The Blackhawks Dylan Strome had converted just ten seconds into their first power play of the game back in the first period, giving Chicago their second goal of the game. It had come just 37 seconds after Ryan Carpenter got a shorthanded goal when the Bruins struggled on their second power play of the first period and the game.

The “never quit” attitude that flows in the veins of all of the Bruins though saw Chris Wagner get the Bruins within one goal, while on the penalty kill, and a lot of time left on the clock; which read 4:59 in the third.

“When [Wagner] has had some space like he did tonight, he can certainly beat a goalie. He’s shown that on breakaways over the course of his [two] years here. He’s made some nice moves when he’s in all alone,” said Coach Cassidy.

And it was undoubtedly that goal that tipped the ice a bit in favor of Boston, well that and Chicago’s ongoing attention to Pastrnak. While two of the Blackhawks were focused on preventing Pastrnak from doing anything at one point, Torey Krug, off a feed from DeBrusk below the goal line, managed to thread the puck under Lehner’s blocker arm. With 2:33 left in the third period, the Bruins had climbed out of a three-goal hole and tied the game.

In the end, they didn’t get the extra point, but their streak continues on home ice. They have not yet been beaten in regulation at home. Now if they could bring the intensity they had in the third period from the first puck drop of the game, who knows what they could accomplish.