The Bruins out-shot the San Jose Sharks 26-18, but could not find a way to get a puck past Sharks goalie Antti Niemi as the B's fell to San Jose 2-0 at TD Garden in a Saturday matinee.
With the Bruins down a man after a too many men on the ice call, Sharks rookie phenom Logan Couture's backhander from the slot got past Tim Thomas to spot San Jose a 1-0 lead 7:22 into the game. Ryane Clowe and Marc-Edouard Valsic picked up helpers on Couture's team-best 23rd goal of the season.
The Sharks put the puck in the net with 12:23 left in the second period, but the goal was immediately disallowed due to what was ruled "incidental contact" by Ben Eager on Tim Thomas.
Devin Setoguchi added an empty net goal with 2 seconds left in the game to account for the 2-0 final score.
Notes:
- Zach Hamill made is season debut today after being called up from Providence. Hamill logged 10:35 of ice time.
- The Bruins struggled again on the power play, going 0 for 4 with the man advantage.
- Joe Thornton did not register a shot on goal, but was credited with a game-high 6 hits.
- Tim Thomas made 16 saves in the loss.
- Tuukka Rask is sporting a spiffy new mask that pays homage to Gerry Cheevers.
- The Bruins will not see the San Jose Sharks again this season.
- Adam McQuaid appeared to be sporting a decent-sized egg on his forehead after the game which may have been a result of one of the two fights he has been in over the course of the last two games.
- The Bruins are off until Wednesday when they host the Montreal Canadiens.
- For more on today's game, check out Fear The Fin and Battle of California
Quotes from the Dressing Rooms:
"Thornton made a good drop pass to settle through the middle. It kind of set their defense back. It gave me time to cut to the middle and really get a better angle on the backhand on him. He was moving with me. I don’t know if it went through him or underneath his blocker but I saw he got a piece of it but it ended up in the net."
Sharks forward Logan Couture on his game-winning goal
"We got caught on a funny change there in the penalty kill. And we tried to recover. It was a three on two, and that Logan Couture is on fire this year. And he came in and cut across the slot on the backhand, and backhands are hard to read where they’re going. Actually as he was releasing the puck, like I read a little bit higher blocker so I started to lift my blocker and then I came back down with it trying to close up the hole because that’s what backhands do to you. They handcuff you somehow. It’s…they’re funny shots, and you don’t get a lot of practice against them even in practice, and he got off a pretty good shot. He was coming right across the slot too, which is a good spot where goalies have to change angles, you have to move. You can’t…if he’s off to either side or the other, you can get your angle and just butterfly and let it hit you. And so that’s pretty much what I saw happen."
Tim Thomas on how he saw Couture's goal
"Yeah, well, I had been out there for awhile, and wasn’t given much of a choice there. Maybe in a better situation things might have looked better."
Adam McQuaid on his fight with Ben Eager
"Yeah, I don’t know. Challenged him later on, he didn’t want anything to do with it. Just move on."
Adam McQuaid on challenging Eager to a second fight later in the game
"We got the win. Not an easy place to play. First trip out on the east coast and a different time of the day, so I’d say we passed the test."
Sharks Head Coach Todd McLellan
"Yeah, I mean, what can I say? I had really really long hair and obviously was eighteen years old, no. that was a long time ago. Pat Burns was the coach. He was really tough and a really good coach for me, but I really don’t remember too much from being eighteen."
Joe Thornton on what he remembers about his first season in Boston
"Not really. You really don’t like to look back and kind of say what could of happened. If I stayed here or things like that...I really enjoyed my time out here. I still have a lot of family and friends out here. I always like coming back, but I am a Shark and I like being out there."
Joe Thornton on if he ever thinks about what could have happened if he stayed in Boston
"I heard it was an F bomb but I don’t know. That is one of those calls that I don’t like. There are a lot of F bombs throughout the NHL out there. I don’t know who said it but usually you need a little more than that to get a penalty. I honestly don’t know who did it."
Sharks Defenseman Dan Boyle on the unsportsmanlike conduct minor that was called on Devin Setoguchi on the San Jose bench
"Well I think it was both teams. I think they’re the same way. If you take away the empty-net goal, they only had one goal on the power play and there wasn’t that many opportunities both ways. I think it was a battle tonight of two teams that I think are heavy teams and if there’s an area that they were better than us, it was in the battle. They won more battles than we did and so that’s where I thought the game was decided. I don’t think we played a bad game, and it was tight game from both sides, but we needed to get better along the boards, which also reflected our power play. We lost a lot of battles along the boards and they were icing the puck and we weren’t able to get that much going from that part of it either."
Claude Julien on the team's lack of scoring chances today
"Well it was his first game [this season]. It wasn’t an easy game and I don’t think he got a ton of ice time, but, you know, when it’s a player’s first game, you give him the benefit of the doubt. I don’t think he was any worse or any better than anybody, but I thought he was okay. I thought his battle level was, for Zach, was good. I thought his positioning, his smarts, you could tell were there. So we’ll probably see more as we move on here."
Claude Julien on Providence call-up Zach Hamill
"Tonight was certainly not one where we would say out power play was good. The other night against Dallas, even though we didn’t score our power play was good. We moved the puck well and we had some chances. We didn’t score, and at the end of the night you say you have to score some goals, but at the end of the night we had some good chances. We really felt our power play had taken a stride in the right direction. Tonight it was a totally different case. We weren’t good enough in that area. Again, this is our best players having to be at their best."
Claude Julien on his team's recent power play struggles