Recap: Lifeless Bruins barely show up, lose to Edmonton

(All highlights come courtesy of @CrzyCanucklehed.)

David Pastrnak gets the Bruins on the board with a nice shot on the PP in the first period. 1-0 Bruins.

Patrick Maroon, always scoring against the Bruins, evens things up after some sloppy defensive zone play. 1-1 tie.

A lucky bounce originally gets credited to Milan Lucic, but is ultimately given to Adam Larsson. 2-1 Oilers.

An excellent effort from Riley Nash ends with David Krejci roofing one over Cam Talbot late in the second. 2-2 tie.

Turns out leaving Ryan Strome all alone in the slot isn’t a great idea. 3-2 Oilers.

Edmonton would add an empty-netter, which you don’t really need to see. Just imagine the puck going into an empty net. 4-2 Oilers, final.

Woof. Some thoughts:

• Tuukka Rask was pretty sharp tonight. You could probably argue that he could have done more on the Maroon goal, but the second Oilers goal was a terrible bounce and the third was a goalscorer left all alone 15 feet from the net. People will call for Rask to be benched again due to the loss, but he was the main reason the Bruins were even in the game through two periods.
• Riley Nash was a monster tonight. His play on the Krejci goal was a thing of beauty, and he nearly added the tying goal in the last couple minutes of the game. Far and away the best game he has played as a Bruin.
• A moment that summed up Frank Vatrano’s season thus far: late in the third, he corralled the puck, held off a few Oilers on a tour of the attacking zone and found himself all alone in at the top of one of the circles. His shot missed the net by several feet. Another frustrating moment in what’s been a frustrating season for Vatrano.
• All in all, “disappointing” is the word of the night tonight. After a great effort on national TV Friday, the Bruins just kind of...stunk. They came out flat, and had very little energy. These games happen from time to time, sure, but you’d like to think the team would get a boost from a performance like Friday’s.

It doesn’t get any easier for the B’s, as the Tampa Bay Lightning, second in the NHL in points, come to town on Wednesday night.