Talking Points: Boston Bruins Fall Short, Falter In 3rd Period

Here are the Talking Points with the Boston Bruins falling to the New York Islanders by a 4-2 score at Nassau Coliseum to snap a five-game winning streak.

GOLD STAR: Jean-Gabriel Pageau did a lot of the damage for the Islanders on Saturday night, including the shorthanded goal in the third period that gave the Islanders an insurance goal and kind of put things out of reach for the Black and Gold. Pageau also scored the first goal for the Islanders in the first period after the Bruins got off to a pretty decent start to the game, and that allowed the Isles to begin wearing a Bruins team down that looked like they were playing their third game in four days. Pageau finished with seven shots on net, five hits, two goals and a plus-2 rating in 17:14 of ice time in an outstanding two-way game for the Islanders.

BLACK EYE: Charlie Coyle didn’t make any terrible mistakes by any means, but these are the kinds of games where the Bruins need somebody from the secondary group to step up and have a big game if they hope to win. And Coyle continues to be just “okay” this season as he finished with just a single shot on net in 14:14 of ice time, had a couple of giveaways and lost 9-of-15 face-offs while finishing a minus-1 as well. Coyle and Anders Bjork had some good scoring chances early in the game they couldn’t capitalize on and then seemed to really go invisible after that for the rest of the game. Coyle now has just two goals and four points in 14 games this season and really hasn’t contributed much offensively as the third line center. He needs to step it up a bit.

TURNING POINT: The Boston Bruins had a 2-2 score and had scrapped their way to a tie game after 40 minutes while playing their third game in four days, and at least put themselves in a position to at least steal a point. But things fell apart in the third period as they allowed a power play goal to the Islanders earlier in the period and then the true crushing blow was the shorthanded goal allowed later on with a chance to tie things up. The five forward power play unit wasn’t really up for discussion with Jakub Zboril dinged up and Matt Grzelcyk out of the lineup, and that played into Jean-Gabriel Pageau jumping on a loose puck after Nick Ritchie and David Krejci crashed into each other at the offensive blue line. Once they fell down 4-2 in the third period, they really didn’t have the legs to get back into it.

HONORABLE MENTION: Patrice Bergeron almost willed the Bruins to a point and was outstanding in defeat on the third game in four days. Bergeron finished with a goal and two points, including the then game-tying goal in the second period off a feed from Brad Marchand. Bergeron finished with the goal, two points, two shots on net and dominant 19-of-24 face-off wins in 17:03 of ice time. Bergeron and the Bruins didn’t have enough in the tank to overcome the two-goal deficit that the Isles were able to build up in the third period, but the Bruins top guys battled and clearly did their best to try and grind out things for at least a point. There’s no shame in coming up just a little short after the way they battled.

BY THE NUMBERS: 8 – the career-high point streak for Mat Barzal, who scored the game-winning goal in the third period on the power play and has four goals and 10 points during the hot streak for the Islanders.

Mathew Barzal has scored the go-ahead goal for the @NYIslanders to extend his point streak to a career-high eight games (4-6—10) dating to Jan. 26 – the second-longest active run in the League behind Auston Matthews (9 GP). #NHLStats pic.twitter.com/vcpuVpUxHJ

— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) February 14, 2021

QUOTE TO NOTE: “Yeah, I don’t think we had our legs tonight and I don’t think, at times, we were making the best decisions. It is what it is…the schedule is the same for everyone. But tonight, was one of those nights where the energy wasn’t the greatest.”–Patrice Bergeron, after a 5-1-0 stretch of six games on the road for the Boston Bruins, and 11 of the last 14 days on the road without a home game since Jan. 28, that ended with the 4-2 loss to the Islanders.