Bruins drop second straight game in home loss to Lightning

The Boston Bruins have now lost two in a row after a two-win burst post-trade deadline, dropping a 6-2 defeat to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday night at TD Garden. They're now 2-2 since GM Don Sweeney sold off several key pieces, overhauling the roster.

Tampa Bay captain Victor Hedman opened the scoring after capitalizing on a loose rebound down by the faceoff dot. His teammate, Ryan McDonagh, later stopped David Pastrnak on a breakaway with a strong backcheck.

The Bruins were able to kill off a Nikita Zadorov crosschecking penalty, keeping it a one-goal game. Soon after that, Elias Lindholm scored his 12th goal of the season off a nifty pass from Andrew Peeke, and the B's took a 1-1 tie into the first intermission.

After a competitive opening 20 minutes, Tampa Bay took firm control of the game in the second period. They out-shot the B's 20-0 (!) and scored three times to take a 4-1 lead into the second intermission. Nick Paul, Anthony Cirelli, and Darren Raddysh grabbed the goals for the Lightning.

Bruins newcomer Marat Khusnutdinov scored for the second straight game early in the third period to make it a 4-2 game, but it was too little, too late. Khusnutdinov, who scored two goals in 57 games for the Minnesota Wild before coming over to Boston in the Justin Brazeau trade, now has two goals in four games for the B's.

Tampa potted two empty-net goals late in the third period to put a bow on this one. For them, it represents a strong bounce-back after a surprise 4-0 loss to the Bruins in Boston's first game after the trade deadline.

Up Next: The B's will look to rebound on Monday night against the Buffalo Sabres at TD Garden.

Matt Dolloff is a writer and digital content producer for 98.5 The Sports Hub. Read all of his articles here.