Game 26 Live Blog: Boston Bruins @ Pittsburgh Penguins

The Bruins have lost their seventh game in the last 10 tries with a 4-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins at PPG Paints Arena. We’ll have more on this one a bit later…

Here are the five thoughts from the first period with the Boston Bruins trailing the Pittsburgh Penguins by a 2-1 score after the opening 20 minutes at TD Garden.

• The Bruins did a great job of listening to the Bruins coaching staff, applying what they asked them to do and funneling pucks at the Pittsburgh net. Twenty shots on net for the B’s as they took shots from anywhere and everywhere, won battles and put a ton of pressure on the Pittsburgh defense. It resulted in a power play goal and some excellent offensive chances, and it’s exactly what the Bruins need to do more often.

• The bad part? Two soft goals from Jaroslav Halak at the end of the first period ruined everything good that the B’s had done. One was a glove save where Halak missed the shot when he should have had it, and the other was a bad-angle Sidney Crosby shot that Halak wasn’t able to shut off on the short side. Both were goals he should have stopped and now the Bruins are looking at a 2-1 deficit when they did almost everything right for the opening 20 minutes. He could be getting tired after playing the last four games with Tuukka Rask out of the lineup and that’s not a great thing.

• The Bruins could certainly use more PP offense from Matt Grzelcyk at the point, and they got it this time around with a wrist shot while Nick Ritchie was screening in front of the net. That hasn’t been a staple this season as the power play has struggled a bit without Torey Krug this year, and the Bruins haven’t received the kind of threat they’ve needed from the point spots. It could be a big boost if Grzelcyk begins creating more on the man advantage.

Matt Grzelcyk fires one home on the power play.

Bruins lead, 1-0. pic.twitter.com/nTJP6ng0TQ

— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) March 15, 2021

• It says something when a hockey team has 20 shots on net and 20 hits in one period, and that’s exactly what the Boston Bruins did in the opening 20 minutes. It wasn’t out-of-control pissed off hockey, but it was very effective with the kind of focused, concerted effort that we didn’t see at all on Saturday.

• Welcome back to the Globe’s Kevin Paul Dupont, who hasn’t covered anything live for the Bruins until tonight in Pittsburgh. It’s great to have the Hall of Famer back even if I am not in Pittsburgh to pester him in the press box.