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Talking Points: Boston Bruins Stymied In Red Wings Loss

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BOSTON – Here are the Talking Points from the Boston Bruins 2-1 loss to the Detroit Red Wings at TD Garden on Tuesday night.

GOLD STAR: Alex Nedeljkovic was stellar between the pipes for the Red Wings even if the Bruins didn’t truly make him work for too many of the 41 saves. Still, he had a nice stop on a David Pastrnak net drive where he knifed in behind the defense for a point-blank chance and had to help kill off a Bruins PP after they’d already scored on the 5-on-3 advantage to tie it up. Through it all the Red Wings goaltender didn’t blink or let up in any soft ones while waiting for the dam to break in the third period once the Bruins took a retaliation penalty that ended up losing them the game. The win improves Nedeljkovic to 8-3-3 on the season as he’s truly become a goaltender the Red Wings can rely on after uncertain play between the pipes for Detroit over the last few seasons.

BLACK EYE: Charlie Coyle had a bad giveaway in front of the Detroit bench that led to the Red Wings opening goal of the game as they were changing players and ended up with four giveaways for the entire game. Coyle lost 8-of-12 faceoffs and finished a minus-1 while part of the perimeter crew for the Boston Bruins that wasn’t really getting anything going close to the net. Perhaps it was the adjustment of playing without Taylor Hall on his left side after he was bumped up to the top line, but Coyle had one of his worst games of the season on Tuesday night.

TURNING POINT: Crazy sequence in the third period that led to the Detroit game-winner. Michael Rasmussen tripped Mike Reilly along the end boards in what looked like a penalty, but wasn’t called, and then Reilly took a retaliatory cross-checking penalty on a delayed call. That led to Marc Staal scoring the game-winner after a point shot bounced off Reilly in front as he battled for position once again with the bigger Rasmussen in front of the Boston net. Rough shift for Reilly and that’s what turned the game in Detroit’s favor.

HONORABLE MENTION: David Pastrnak had a team-high nine shots on net and scored the only goal for the Bruins on a power play strike and was consistently the guy looking to create with Brad Marchand out of the lineup. But Pastrnak also finished with five giveaways and the Boston Bruins had, as a team, a ghastly 17 giveaways while continuously turning the puck over to the Red Wings. While the shot count certainly looked impressive for the Boston Bruins, their attention to detail and many of the little, important things to winning hockey just weren’t there against a Detroit team that should have been easy pickings. Instead, the Boston Bruins let two points slip away in a really ugly loss to a Red Wings team that’s given them fits over the last few years.

BY THE NUMBERS: 42-16 – the shot count in favor of the Boston Bruins, who somehow still lost 2-1 while largely shooting from the perimeter throughout the game.

QUOTE TO NOTE: “He just said ‘I love you guys. This is something in my career, I’m at a crossroads’ and he’s going to have to do it. Jake’s a great kid. He’s not a distraction at all.” –Taylor Hall on what Jake DeBrusk said to his Boston Bruins teammates this morning when addressing them about requesting a trade over the last few days.

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