Recap: Ducks vs Bruins: Another Point Squandered

Another point thrown away.

That seems to be the theme for the season, as the Bruins have shown that they can't hang on to late leads. The Ducks on the other hand, have shown an almost impossible talent for not leaving the rink with no points in close games, only having one regulation one goal loss this year. This game could probably be pointed to as a microcosm of the Bruins season - good enough to win for 50 minutes, but slipped away in the last ten minutes.

One of the good things gleaned from this game was the Bruins power play, scoring two goals and dictating play. All in all, it was a typical Bruins game this year. Scoreless through the first, the Bruins couldn't take advantage of two powerplays they had, but played Anaheim evenly.  The goal scoring picked up in the second period, with Patrick Maroon undressing Matt Bartkowski at the blue line on his way to rifling a shot past Rask. Less than three minutes later, Ryan Spooner scored his sixth goal and his thirteenth point since his most recent recall, tied for first on the Bruins in both categories in that span. Through his first 16 games last year, Spooner had seven points, all assists. He was still creating goals, but now Spooner is the one scoring some of them.

Spooner actually led in goals for a short while, but another powerplay goal, this time by Eriksson just 37 seconds into the third period pulled the Bruins ahead two to one. That lead would stand for almost the remainder of the period, until Corey Perry scored with 38 seconds left in the game after Tuukka Rask had his leg taken out pushing cross crease. Perry's goal was clearly in response to top pairing defenseman Adam McQuaid's challenge, asking him "what are you going to do?"

Rask's comments on the tying goal:

"I asked the ref and he said there was nothing there, so thats what we go by. I havent seen it yet, but somebody took my legs out"

In overtime, the Bruins killed off a Zdeno Chara one handed hooking penalty, with both Dennis Seidenberg and Adam McQuaid out there for the full two minutes, only to see Ryan Getzlaf send the Bruins home with one less point than they wanted, and needed just 31 seconds after killing off the penalty.

Zach Trotman played over ten minutes paired with Zdeno Chara, with Claude Julien entrusting the rookie with ice time with less than three minutes left and into overtime. Trotman only played three minutes with his partner in pregame skate, Matt Bartkowski who is looking more and more outmatched as he climbs up the depth chart. Sans Hamilton, the Bruins defensive pairings are about as appealing as a hamburger thrown onto the ice. The most positive part of tonight didn't even happen at TD Garden: The Ottawa Senators, the team in the second wildcard position that the Bruins are chasing got shellacked 5 - 1, as the Bruins fall one point closer to the playoffs.

The Bruins are now winless in their past six games, going 0 - 3 - 3 in that span. The Bruins are back at it over the weekend, with a back to back against the Rangers and then the Hurricanes on Saturday (1:00 PM) and Sunday (7:00 PM).

The effort is there at times. The consistency and results? They'll get back to you on that.