Recap: Bruins fall flat in Chicago, lose 6-3

After a sloppy start to the road trip in Detroit on Sunday, the Bruins decided to put forth an even sloppier effort and a scrappy Blackhawks team made them pay.

Chicago skated to a 6-3 win at United Center, powered by a four-goal third period and Taylor Raddysh’s hat trick.

While the Bruins threw 42 shots on goal, it’d be a stretch to say they “deserved better” out of this game — “sloppy” was the theme of the night.

After an early part of the first that saw the Bruins carry a decent portion of the play, MacKenzie Entwistle, in March Madness fashion, took it STRONG TO THE HOOP and opened the scoring for Chicago. 1-0 Blackhawks.

With five minutes left in the second period, Hampus Lindholm’s shot through traffic made it a 1-1 game.

Joey Anderson would cash in on a loose puck just a couple of minutes later, restoring Chicago’s lead and making it 2-1 Blackhawks.

A greasy goal for Trent Frederic, after great plays by Lindholm and Tyler Bertuzzi, made it a 2-2 game with 11 seconds left in the second period.

Pavel Zacha’s laser made it 3-2 Bruins early in the third period.

I’m not entirely sure what happened in the crush of humanity in front of the Bruins net, but the play ended with Taylor Raddysh scoring and making it a 3-3 game shortly after Zacha’s goal.

Derek Forbort is going to want to burn any and all copies of this play. Boris Katchouk makes it 4-3 Blackhawks midway through the third period.

After the Bruins let a mid-third period power play go by the board, Raddysh would cash in on a late Chicago power play, making it 5-3 Blackhawks.

David Pastrnak would end up with a penalty shot with around 90 seconds left, but flubbed it and couldn’t beat Alex Stalock.

Raddysh would add an empty-netter for the hat trick, an exclamation point on a 6-3 Blackhawks win.

The Bruins open their road trip with two consecutive regulation losses to teams well outside the playoff picture, allowing 11 (!!!) goals in the process.

Game notes

• Most of us will still be in “whatever, figure it out before the playoffs” mode, but there’s not a lot of great stuff to say about this one. Chicago entered the night with the league’s least-potent offense (2.47 GF/G), but the Bruins let them score six (including one ENG).
• Too many loose pucks that weren’t taken care of, too many loose defensive plays, too many general lapses...even Linus Ullmark didn’t look great tonight. Ugly!
• You don’t want to lean too much into the “Bruins weren’t trying hard enough” narrative, but regarding the loose pucks point above, it seemed like Chicago was hungrier on the puck tonight (I know that’s a cliché, but...). Faster to loose pucks, more willing to score the messy goals.
• It was another 0-fer for the struggling Bruins power play. Maybe “struggling” isn't strong enough anymore. Flailing? Sinking?
• Chicago’s Petr Mrazek left the game with what looked like a left leg injury in the second period. He didn’t return.
• With the obligatory “plus/minus isn’t a great stat” disclaimer out of the way, Hampus Lindholm and Dmitry Orlov were +2 and +3 respectively, no small feat given the way the team played as a whole.
• On the opposite end of the spectrum were Forbort and Connor Clifton, -3 each. Poor Forbort still doesn’t know which way Boris Katchouk went.
• David Pastrnak wasn’t dinged with any giveaways in the official box score tonight, but your co-worker will still make that a talking point tomorrow because why not?
• Generally speaking, allowing 11 goals in two games is not going to lead to much success. The Bruins should try allowing fewer goals next time.

Speaking of next time, that’ll be on Thursday night against the Winnipeg Jets.

Have it at below!