Bruins vs. Red Wings 3/31/19 RECAP: So we’re doing this again, huh?

First Period:

Things started weird. Both sides ended up with a bunch of penalties and spent the better half of this period on special teams.

This would turn out to be a horrible thing for the Bruins, as Anthony Mantha took advantage of one of many players far too deep in their own end to adequately cover him, and he put the Wings up 1-0

Actually he dropped two. He got another just before the period ended. 2-0 Wings.

To say this was a bad period would be an understatement! Let’s move on!

Second Period:

Like many games this year, the supposed comeback was sparked by the work of one Jake DeBrusk, who managed to sneak away from the entire Red Wings roster and take a laser-like pass from David Krejci and put it right past Howard. 2-1 Wings

Seriously. The acceleration of Jake DeBrusk is spooky.

And then, the Bruins got on the PK, which sucks...

ONLY IF YOU’RE THE WINGS! Because Brad Marchand became the sole-leader in Bruins franchise history in short-handed goals because giving Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand a 2-on-1 opportunity is an absolutely horrible idea. 2-2 Tied!

Ruthless work by Bergeron just taking that puck away from where Mantha could ever get it. Just magnificent.

And, just as the period was ending, Kevan Miller got himself a primary assist hot off injury as David Backes tipped home an otherwise unimpressive shot to put the Bruins up for the first time this game! 3-2 B’s!

Man, you couldn’t ask for a better looking comeback. The horn sounded, and the B’s went to the dressing room ready to take this game in the third!

Third Period:

The cruelest act any one person can do is give someone hope before snatching that away. The Bruins didn’t have to do us like this. But they did.

And it started early, as Jake DeBrusk took an interference call against Athanasiou, and responded on the power play by setting Mantha up for his hat trick. 3-3 Tie.

And then...the wheels came bouncing away. Taro Hirose charged the net as Athanasiou set him up for a gorgeous chance, and he buried it. The local(ish) kid gets his first NHL goal and the B’s are back down again. 4-3 Red Wings.

And from then on, the Bruins would try their damnedest to attempt to comeback, but to no avail. The backbreaker would come from a Filip Hronek bomb. 5-3 Wings.

B’s got desperate, pulled their goalie...

...You can see where that went, right? ENG, Bruins lose 6-3, and take no points from the weekend.

Happy April f__king Fools Day, I guess.

Game Notes:

• Jaroslav Halak, as well as the defense around him, had a pretty long night. Detroit was able to attack Boston by getting the puck up-ice at them as fast as humanly possible and create separation, and their net-front presence was almost overwhelming. It definitely made Kevan Miller’s pretty rusty night that much harder on the guy. That said, everyone needed to be better, and just straight up were not.
• It’s weird that the Bruins first line can have a moment where Brad Marchand sets a milestone for most Short-handed goals to actually get the game tied and looking moderately competitive and also play pretty poorly. Sub-50% in CF%, and in general looking very off their game. One hopes they’re just saving it for playoff time.
• The brief rumor that Tim Peel might’ve been retiring only to have it rescinded was a horrible reminder that life, the universe, and everything cannot be purely objective and we’re often left to the terrifying whims of the people around us. Such as the officiating at the hands of Tim Peel! Of course, it helps if your special teams is actually playing like it wants to be there. Which both the PK and the Power play clearly didn’t. That simply cannot be accepted this close to playoff time.
• Karson Kuhlman got down to about 8 minutes of even strength ice time. Bruce’s short leash for Providence guys strikes again!* Which kinda sucks because he put some decent attempts forward and then just...disappeared.
• Believe it or not, in spite of everything I just mentioned, I really am not that concerned about their performance tonight or last night for a couple of reasons: A) it won’t kill their playoff push because nobody important got injured on the Bruins, and B) the Bruins over the last four seasons have had miserable finishes to their regular seasons that ended up meaning absolutely nothing when they went to the playoffs with the exception of the time they didn’t make the playoffs. My suggestion is simple: Chill out, the games that matter are just a week or two away. They have three games left to tinker, get healthier, get home ice, and then we can start worrying. Because those games against the Leafs we’ve been aware is coming up since like...January? Those count. This weekend? Sucked. Sucked a lot. And now it’s over. And now they can get skated hard in practice and go into the Columbus game ready to party.

* = sarcasm.