Recap: Bruins drop 2-1 game to Red Wings

The Boston Bruins fell to the Detroit Red Wings, 2-1, tonight at the TD Garden, despite throwing 42 shots on net, nearly triple Detroit’s shot count.

“We didn’t pass up on a lot of shots,” Joe Sacco said. “We made it a little easy on the goaltender at times by not getting in front of him enough. I thought we could have done a better job of providing a screen, taking his sight lines away better than what we did, certainly make it a little bit harder on him.”

While Sacco (who took over tonight because Bruce Cassidy was placed in COVID-19 protocols), praised his team’s offensive effort and defense for stepping into those o-zone plays, the Bruins failed to finish all those scoring chances.

They left rebounds and didn’t recreate enough second chances from shots that Alex Nedeljkovic was able to control. The Bruins also flopped on some slot set-ups and sloppy passing. Nedeljovic wasn’t challenged with 42 high danger shots, but he still stopped 41 shots on the night.

Although the B’s controlled the majority of the game with offensive-zone coverage, they couldn’t score on 5v5 and netted their sole goal on a 5-on-3 power play.

Despite the 42-16 shout count, the Red Wings outskated the Bruins’ defense and capitalized on chaos out front on their two goals to ultimately win the game on 16 shots.

Onto Nashville. Is Brad Marchand’s suspension over yet?

Period-by-period breakdown and goals:

The first period saw a lot of back-and-forth action, but not much to write home about.

The frame ended scoreless as the Red Wings’ defense did a good job of breaking up chances and taking away the inside shooting lanes. The Bruins had lengthier puck possessions, but really didn’t come away with shot attempts that would have put them on the board.

The Red Wings opened the scoring at 5:03 of the second period.

On a neutral zone turnover and coming off the bench, Pius Suter sent a board pass to Filip Zadina where he beat Karson Kuhlman along the boards. Carrying the puck through the center lane, Zadina also beat Derek Forbort down the slot to backhand a shot over Linus Ullmark’s glove. 1-0 Red Wings.

Detroit netted that goal on their first shot of the period. Through the majority of the second, the Red Wings only had two shots on net.

The Bruins greatly outshot them 17-5 in the second period, but the follow-through effort wasn’t there - or the shots were long and in easy sight line for Nedeljkovic. The B’s ran several plays with shots off the end-boards that no one picked up.

Detroit’s defense shut down in the slot and made it hard for the Bruins on the rebound.

The team was faced with the same problems in the third period - many shots, but little finish.

A 5-on-3 power play, however, gave Boston some hope early in the period.

The Bruins tied the game at 6:20 of the third period on the man-advantage.

Taylor Hall found Pastrnak in the slot for a one-timer past Nedeljkovic’s glove. 1-1 game.

Bergeron’s line gained chemistry as the game and period progressed. Hall and Pastrnak had another chance off the rush to put the Bruins in the lead, but Hall crashed too hard to the net and knocked the net off its posts.

But alas, a delayed penalty call caused a bit of a scramble in the Bruins’ defensive zone.

The Red Wings got the go-ahead goal at 11:33 of the third period which sealed Detroit’s win.

Vladislav Namestnikov’s shot hit Mike Reilly at the top of the paint. Marc Staal found the rebound and put a quick shot past Ullmark on the ice. Final score: 2-1 Red Wings.

The Bruins hit the road on Thursday December 2 for an 8 pm game against the Nashville Predators.