Recap: Bruins blanked by Rangers, 4-0

The Boston Bruins were shut out 4-0 by the Rangers this afternoon at the TD Garden, as the team’s effort was “atypical” and “out of sync,” according to Bruce Cassidy.

“You’re not going to look great every night, but the effort has to be there,” Cassidy said.

Early shifts favor the Rangers, as they controlled the play and spent most of the time in their offensive zone. Phillip Di Giuseppe and K’Andre Miller put pressure on Jaroslav Halak in the first minute and shooting was in favor of New York for the first few minutes of play.

The Rangers opened the scoring at 3:06 in the first period. Pavel Buchnevich won a board battle to get the puck back to Miller. Through traffic, Miller let a wrist shot fly over the stick of Halak. 1-0 Rangers.

The Bruins power play couldn’t get anything going in the period. The Bs also had trouble in the neutral zone with incomplete passes and not being able to set up breakouts.

Shots were 10-6 Rangers after the first 20 minutes.

The Rangers took a 2-0 lead at 5:42 in the second period. From the corner boards, Mika Zibanejad found Chris Kreider crashing the slot for a quick wrist shot over Halak’s stick, making the score 2-0.

The Bruins had two more power plays in the second period, but like the previous two opportunities, neither PP unit could get any momentum built and couldn’t keep the puck in the offensive zone.

Through the first 40 minutes, the Bruins lacked quality shots on net and were outshot 21-11.

“I think we’re going to struggle when our top line is off,” Cassidy said. “Our power play was out of sync.

“We need other people to pick us up and they need to get going,” Cassidy said.

Cassidy switched up the units on the power play for this game and mentioned post-game that he probably should have stuck with the original groups. But the execution wasn’t there, as he pointed out that the team couldn’t get clean entries and settle the puck down.

The Rangers extended their lead to 3-0 at 8:03 in the third period. Artemi Panarin found Ryan Strome in the low slot for a one-timer low past Halak’s stick side. Rangers 3-0.

The Rangers would go on to blank the Bruins for a final score of 4-0. Kreider forced Chris Wagner to turn over the puck behind the Bruins’ goal. The puck came loose to Buchnevich inside the right face-off circle for a one-timer past Halak’s glove at 16:12 in the third period.

The biggest issues of the game was the lack of offense not only at 5v5, but also on the man-advantage, and the Bruins know it. Marchand and Ritchie had some chances, but not quality. The game got away from the Bs and they couldn’t respond back.

To quote Cassidy, the team didn’t bring their “A” or “B” game today. They were way down the alphabet.

The Bruins are back in action on Monday against the Pittsburgh Penguins on the road.