Bruins Outplayed by Hurricanes

(Photo: Fred Kfoury III/Icon Sportswire)

Tuesday night’s game between the Boston Bruins and the Carolina Hurricanes was a nightmare if you were rooting for the Bruins. This was one of those games were just nothing went right. The players came out flat. Worse than that, they simply couldn’t seem to connect much on the passes. There was bad decision making up and down the lineup. And unfortunately for those playing in front of him, Tuukka Rask simply didn’t have a good game—well period, since he was replaced by Linus Ullmark to start the second.

This was Rask’s second game since signing with the Bruins after having returned from surgery that kept him out until this month. He was originally supposed to get a couple of games with the Providence Bruins, but COVID-19 issues postponed those games. However, his performance against the Philadelphia Flyers last Thursday and tonight’s game were as different as night and day.

The loss certainly wasn’t just on his shoulders, though he carries tonight’s loss into his statistics, making him 1-1-0. And his save percentage certainly has taken a hit, going from a .926 after his win against Philadelphia and a 2.26 goals against average to a .821 save percentage and a 5.27 goals against average after Tuesday’s game. Granted it is a small sample, but since he only played 20 minutes on Tuesday and he let in five goals on 12 shots, it really hurt him.

Boston was already down two goals by 6:03 of the first. Patrice Bergeron got the Bruins only goal of the game on Frederik Andersen at 11:13 of the opener to cut Carolina’s lead in half only to have the Canes come back 13 seconds later to score their third off the stick of Jesperi Kotkaniemi. It was his second of the game as well.

“Yeah, burn the tape on that one. That was not our team. We’ve got to be better. I think the last few weeks we’ve all seen how good we can be, the steps forward we have taken,” said Bergeron after the game.

After regaining their two-goal lead, the Hurricanes mopped the ice with the Bruins. Seth Jarvis, unassisted, gave Carolina their fourth of the game and of the period at 16:01 and 56 seconds later Derek Stepan put the Canes up 5-1, where the hemorrhaging would stop, in part because the period mercifully came to an end.

As things got underway in the second, Ullmark had replaced Rask. The Bruins had a bit more speed in their skates, but that was about all that could be said. They simply couldn’t solve Carolina. However, when the final horn sounded, the Hurricanes had added two more goals in the third for a final score of 7-1.

“This is less about the opponent, more about where we’re at. Obviously, they forecheck hard, and some of the things they do well, some of the top teams do well—hard on pucks, get on top of you, get to the front of the net. That we weren’t nearly good enough, and we wouldn’t have been good enough against the worst team in the league tonight. We weren’t competitive, and we paid the price,” said Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy.

“It was just flat, just no execution. It’s gotta be better for sure. It’s one of those you just burn, and you try and move on,” concurred Bergeron.

Indeed, the Bruins do need to wipe the memory banks of Tuesday’s game as they must face the Washington Capitals on Thursday evening.