Boston Bruins

Bruins Still Winless On Road Trip Following Loss To Kraken

Published

1 month ago

December 13, 2024

AP Photo/Jason Redmond

The Boston Bruins veered off course with a disastrous loss to begin their five-game road trip and aren’t any closer to getting back on track after dropping their second straight game by the final of 5-1 to the Seattle Kraken on Thursday at Climate Pledge Arena.

Boston had to play from behind from the very beginning.

It took just 24 seconds for Seattle to take the lead as Oliver Bjorkstrand deflected a shot by Matty Beniers on the power play after David Pastrnak took a double minor penalty for high sticking on the very first shift of the game.

The Bruins soon found themselves back on the penalty kill and down by two soon after that,

The Bruins managed to the penalty by Tyler Johnson, but just as he stepped out of the box, Jaden Schwartz put another goal on the board for the Kraken after a failed clearing attempt by Charlie McAvoy.

“Those aren’t good penalties,” Bruins interim head coach Joe Sacco told reporters in Seattle. “You’re chasing the game again, and that’s hard to do in this league.”

Bruins goalie Joonas Korpisalo had pretty much the entire net covered, except for a small space between his head and the crossbar that Schwartz lifted a backhand shot through for his eighth goal of the season.

“That was a great move by him, but I overplayed it a little bit,” Kopisalo told reporters in Seattle. “I opened up a little hole next to my ear, and he was good enough to put it in. At the end of the day, I can’t let him score right there. It happens.”

It wasn’t until the Bruins gave themselves a chance to play at five-on-five that they actually got to playing their game. They controlled the final 14:30 of the first period with a 14-2 advantage in shots on goal but were yet to solve Kraken goalie Philipp Grubauer.

Seattle’s backup netminder made 33 saves, frustrating the Bruins as he robbed them on multiple high-danger chances.

Standing all alone in the low slot, Pastrnak had a point-blank chance after the Bruins won a battle for the puck behind the Kraken net, only for Grubauer to turn the attempt aside by getting barely enough of the shot with his blocker.

Pastrnak had another chance at Grubauer moments later on a breakaway but was unable to get a clean shot off as Seattle defenseman Brandon Montour broke up the play on the back check.

Brad Marchand was the only member of the Bruins that put a shot past Grubauer.

As the Bruins crashed the crease, they nearly stuffed the puck into the back of the net, but Montour dove on top of it just as it was about to cross the goal line.

Boston was awarded a penalty shot that Marchand used to score his 12th goal of the season to make it 2-1 at 10:28 of the second period.

“Sometimes they go in,” Marchand told reporters in Seattle. “Sometimes they have more confidence on them than others. I felt like that one, I felt confident in the situation. I got lucky.”

The penalty shot goal was the seventh of Marchand’s career and gave Boston a bit of momentum heading into the final frame.

That, though, was smothered when Vince Dunn extended the Kraken’s lead to 3-1 at 3:07 of the third period. Seattle continued to pile on with a second goal from Bjorkstrand and an empty-net tally by Jared McCann for good measure, as Korpisalo finished the night with 16 saves on 20 shots in goal for Boston.

“I just try to do my job,” said Korpisalo. “I try to help the team stay in it. It doesn’t matter how many goals they score, I still play the same way. We were trying really hard, and that’s all I care about.”

To add injury to insult, the Bruins played the final 28 minutes of the game without center Elias Lindholm after he was ruled out with an upper-body injury at the start of the third period.

Lindholm’s final shift of the night came at 12:30 of the second period, and he finished the game without a shot on goal in just 6:56 of ice time. Sacco did not have an update on Lindholm’s status when asked postgame.

Through the first two games of their five-game road trip, the Bruins have been outscored by a combined margin of 13-2 and 8-0 in the third period, dropping their overall record to 15-13-3.

“We got to clean it up defensively, big time,” Marchand said. “We can’t keep giving up five and six goals a game. That’s not the type of team we are.”

The road ahead only gets more treacherous for Boston as it heads towards Vancouver for a matchup with the Canucks on Saturday night.