Game 32 Live Blog: Boston Bruins Vs. New Jersey Devils

BOSTON – Here are five thoughts from the second period with the Boston Bruins trailing by a 4-2 score after the opening 40 minutes at TD Garden.

• This has all the makings of a loss where the Bruins just bury themselves deeper each time they seem to be making a little progress. Every time they’ve scored in this game they’ve given up another goal within minutes, and now find themselves down by two goals entering the third period against a team they can’t score against. That’s not good at all.

• At least the power play had some good looks. David Pastrnak had a couple of great chances from the circle, Patrice Bergeron had a near tip at the net and then Brad Marchand finally scored on a stick-side snipe from the slot. The Bruins need to find a way to get their PP back to its top-5 effectiveness if they hope to withstand some of their 5-on-5 issues and that comes down to their best players making better, more impactful plays.

• That Jeremy Lauzon turnover was all kinds of terrible. A clean Patrice Bergeron face-off win in the D-zone that Lauzon puts right on Kyle Palmieri’s stick in front of the Boston net. The Bruins young defensemen have really struggled in this middle portion of the season after a pretty good beginning to the year. Jakub Zboril is obviously having the most well-chronicled issues of any the young D-men, but Lauzon is showing growing pains as well.

• The Ritchie-Krejci-Smith line has been Boston’s best through two periods. It’s time for some of the others to really pick up the slack during 5-on-5 play, and that includes Pastrnak skating with the Perfection Line during even strength.

• Miles Wood would look good in a Bruins uniform, wouldn’t he?

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

• The Bruins continue to struggle in some strange ways against the New Jersey Devils, whether it’s not being able to score goals during 5-on-5 play or just about never playing with the lead against New Jersey. Today they gave up a goal less than two minutes into the first period and then gave up another goal four minutes after they’d tied the game. As the old hockey saying goes, catch-up hockey is losing hockey.

• Another slow start for Boston Bruins sniper David Pastrnak with zero shot attempts in seven plus minutes of ice time in the first period. It seems like he’s been in a rut for the last week or two where he’s been a really slow starter in games before getting it together as things go along.

• The moral of the story on Nick Ritchie’s goal: Put rubber on the net. Ritchie fired a shot from beyond the face-off circle that glanced off Mackenzie Blackwood’s glove hand for a gift goal for the Black and Gold. It’s a good lesson for a Bruins team that doesn’t fire enough pucks like that designed for rebounds and scrambling in the defensive zone.

• The speed of the Devils has been very apparent throughout this season series against the Bruins, and that was the case again in the first period as an errant puck bounce ended up allowing Michael McLeod to beat Matt Grzelcyk with speed before pulling a double-move on Jaroslav Halak. It’s been a long time since the Bruins have been able to score a goal like that on a nice one-on-one move off the rush.

• The Boston Pride are in the house with the Isobel Cup. Pretty sweet.

The @TheBostonPride are in the house with the Isobel Cup 🏒🏆 pic.twitter.com/j4qrng8Y2x

— Joe Haggerty (@HackswithHaggs) March 30, 2021