Talking Points: Boston Bruins See Another Lead Fade Away In Loss

BOSTON – Here are the Talking Points from the Boston Bruins 3-2 loss to the Ottawa Senators at TD Garden on Thursday night.

GOLD STAR: The Boston Bruins had to pay attention to the skill guys on the Ottawa Senators and clearly that didn’t happen enough when Tim Stutzle finishes with a goal, three points and a plus-1 in 18:35 of ice time. Stutzle did damage on the power play in the second amidst Ottawa’s 5-on-3 man advantage with a secondary assist on Josh Norris’ goal before scoring on his own during a scramble in front of the Boston net when they couldn’t clear a puck. Stutzle finished with five shots on net, seven shot attempts and a hit and a takeaway in an active game for Ottawa. In general, though, whether it was Stutzle or somebody else, the Bruins had no answers for Ottawa when it came to the special teams department.

BLACK EYE: The Bruins power play continues to be a major issue with no David Pastrnak, and no way to attack when No. 88 isn’t in the lineup. The absence of Pastrnak’s one-timer as a threat has created a situation where Boston’s PP is much easier to defend and the B’s consistently are having issues simply holding onto the puck in the offensive zone. The Bruins went 0-for-5 on the power play in the game and are now 0-for-23 over their last six games with their last PP goal coming nearly two weeks away when the B’s beat the Winnipeg Jets at TD Garden. Once they were down by a goal they had three PP chances to tie the game and couldn’t do it and the Sens had two PP goals in the second period. Boston’s special teams got schooled on Thursday night.

TURNING POINT: The real turning point in this one feels like it was Linus Ullmark leaving at the end of the first period with the Bruins having built a solid 2-0 lead. That opened the door for Ottawa to score a fluke goal in the opening minutes of the second period, and then do real damage when they got a long 5-on-3 possession after a high sticking call on Mike Reilly and a really iffy hooking call on Patrice Bergeron handed Ottawa a two-man advantage. Once again, though, the recent pattern of a Boston Bruins lead melting in the second period happened as has been the case a handful of times over the last few weeks.

HONORABLE MENTION: Nick Foligno actually deserves plenty of credit for the way he’s playing lately and Thursday was another worthy effort. It was Foligno that set up Boston’s first goal of the game when his centering bid was deflected by Marc McLaughlin before bouncing off Michael Del Zotto’s skate and winding up in the back of the Ottawa net. Foligno finished with eight shot attempts and four hits in just 11:30 of ice time and added the primary helper on McLaughlin’s third career NHL goal for the Boston Bruins. Of all the bad news that’s brewing for the Black and Gold right now, Foligno getting into postseason form is one of the silver linings.

Goal has now been credited to Marc McLaughlin, his third goal in as many games at TD Garden. https://t.co/vWoPUeNXEd

— Patrick Donnelly (@PatDonn12) April 14, 2022

BY THE NUMBERS: 3 – the number of regulation losses in a row for the Boston Bruins in the first time that’s happened this season, and the first time at all since a four-game slide back in Dec. 2019.

QUOTE TO NOTE: “It’s an amazing feeling.” –Boston Bruins rookie Jesper Froden after scoring his first NHL goal in Thursday night’s loss to the Senators on a nice tip of a Matt Grzelcyk point shot.