Talking Points: Boston Bruins Can’t Hold In OT Avs Loss

Here are the Talking Points from the Boston Bruins 4-3 overtime loss to the Colorado Avalanche at Ball Arena on Wednesday night.

GOLD STAR: What a performance from Colorado captain Gabriel Landeskog. He spent most of the second period chasing around Taylor Hall trying to get him to drop the gloves to answer for a clean hit that took out Nathan MacKinnon. But the Avs captain refocused in the third and slammed in a one-timer in the final minute of the third to tie up the game and ultimately helped Colorado take away the two points once again on home ice. Landeskog finished with a goal, two points and a plus-2 rating in 26:23 of ice time and had eight shot attempts and four hits while playing an excellent all-around game as the leader of a strong Avs group. Landeskog showed good toughness in stepping up for MacKinnon in the second period as well and is doing a fine job as captain of this Colorado group.

BLACK EYE: It was a rough night for Colorado star player Nathan MacKinnon, who was knocked out of the game early after Taylor Hall turned up to give him a solid, clean hit at the Avs defensive blue line as he was breaking the puck out. Hall delivered a clean shoulder check to the chest, with the force of the hit thrusting MacKinnon’s stick into his own face where it looked like it broke the Avs center’s nose. There was blood all over his face and the ice afterward and MacKinnon didn’t return to the game after just two shifts and 56 seconds on the ice. Hall was whistled for a five-minute major as the hit looked like a head shot on first blush, but video reviews showed it was more unfortunate ending to a good, physical defensive play. The call was reduced to a two-minute interference minor even though replays looked like it wasn’t a penalty at all. That didn’t stop the Avalanche from chasing around Hall in the second period and almost costing themselves the game in the process by taking some bad penalties.

TURNING POINT: The Avalanche decided to focus on the game in the third period rather than getting revenge for Nathan MacKinnon, and it seemed to be a key to getting the two points. The Avs outshot the Boston Bruins by an 18-7 margin in the third period as Boston looked like they were trying to simply protect the lead. Predictably, Colorado got a goal late in the third period to close the gap to 3-1 and then scored with the pulled goaltender late in the third to tie things up and push it to overtime. Gabriel Landeskog got the tying goal with 36.5 left in the third period after Colorado had thrown all their speed and skill at Boston, and then prevailed in overtime after a dominant final 20 minutes of regulation.

HONORABLE MENTION: Jake DeBrusk continues to post good performances since his trade deadline request. This time around it resulted in the initial game-tying goal in the second period while the B’s were trailing 1-0. DeBrusk started a 2-on-1 break with Charlie Coyle and opted to take the shot himself while beating Darcy Kuemper with a blast under his right arm that got tucked inside the far post for the sweet score off the rush. DeBrusk finished with the goal, four shot attempts and two hits in 15:45 of ice time along with a plus-1 rating while continuing a string of engaged, consistent performances for the Bruins since coming back from the holiday/COVID break. DeBrusk had a great chance in the third period to ice the game as well, but Kuemper was able to snuff that one out.

What a shot from Jake DeBrusk.

Tie game.

pic.twitter.com/jtCQRxuSDZ

— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) January 27, 2022

BY THE NUMBERS: 17 – the number of wins in a row for the Avalanche on home ice after pulling out a game that they trailed in for most of the second and third period to the Bruins, but never waved the white flag.

QUOTE TO NOTE: “Good teams are going to have those pushes. It’s up to us. I know we’re a good team. It’s up to us to push back and have the next shift, whoever’s up next, sway it in our favor and play simple, put that puck behind them, make them go back for it and then we play and we forecheck and we have a shift down there and kind of turn the tide that way. That’s what you’ve got to do.” –Charlie Coyle after the Boston Bruins failed to close out a road game, they were leading 3-1 halfway through the third period.