3 Stars: Bruins spoil road trip finale with ‘immature’ loss in Seattle

The Bruins really couldn't have asked for a better spot to close out their five-game road trip Tuesday night in Seattle.

Sure, the Kraken were coming into play riding an eight-game point streak (7-0-1), but they were also on the second leg of a traveling back-to-back that began in Calgary the night before. The Bruins, meanwhile, were playing what was just their second game in the last six days. It's the time of year where those things can and should matter, too.

But the Bruins instead made their own misery with gift-wrapped goals thrown the Kraken's way, and the penalty trouble that's haunted them again and again (and again) on the way to a 7-4 loss to the Kraken.

“We were immature, I can tell you that," Bruins head coach Marco Sturm said in his postgame interview with NESN's Andy Brickley following the defeat. "That’s all that happened today. They didn’t do anything. They went back in their zone, they stopped, and they went up and down the ice, and we made the mistakes.” 

With the loss, the Bruins wrapped up their five-game trek away from TD Garden with a 2-2-1 record, and five of a possible 10 points banked away.

Here's a look at the 985TheSportsHub.com 3 Stars of the game...

The Bruins rebounded from a slow start and a nonsensical 5-on-3 goal against to find themselves tied with the Kraken through 20 minutes. But in a weird way, it felt like the first NHL goal from Berkly Catton to kick off the second period served as confirmation that this one was going to be a mistake-heavy night from the Black and Gold.

Catton made sure to get a second goal by the night's end, too, as it was a third period power-play goal from the 19-year-old that helped bury the Bruins in the third period.

Catton also found a way to make it historic, too. With his two-goal outing, Catton became the the third rookie in Seattle history with a multi-goal game, joining Shane Wright (Apr. 5, 2024) and Matty Beniers (Nov. 29, 2022). He also become just the third teenager in Kraken history to score his first NHL goal, once again joining Wright (18 years, 335 days on Dec. 6, 2022) and Beniers (19 years, 162 days on April 16, 2022).

When you're given seven goals of support, you're allowed to do pretty much whatever you want in the crease. So maybe putting Joey Daccord this high is a bit unusual. But make no mistake about it, the Bruins came out with a purpose when they came out for the third period still within striking distance and chasing the two-goal deficit. But Daccord refused to give them any breathing room before 'garbage time' in this one, and was credited with 13 saves on 15 high-danger saves (per NaturalStatTrick.com).

This felt like one of those vintage Bruins games where where they were downright hopeless offensively whenever David Pastrnak was not out there. That's a bad thing as it relates to the Bruins, of course, but a good thing as it relates to Pastrnak.

On the board with the opening two goals of what was ultimately a four-goal night for the Black and Gold, Pastrnak's tallies were downright pretty ones despite the loss. On that first marker, you simply gotta love Pastrnak getting on his horse to win the bank pass and outright befuddling Daccord with a fake slap shot before going top shelf on a rolling puck. And on the second tally, Pastrnak's ability to elude the entire Seattle five-man unit for a clean look to Daccord's right was a thing of beauty.

Beyond the goals, the Bruins downright dominated the puck and attacking zone whenever No. 88 was out there, with the shot attempts favoring the Bruins by an absurd 26-7 mark during Pastrnak’s 16:23 of five-on-five deployment. Over that span, the Bruins also outshot the Kraken 12-3 and outscored them 2-0.