Bruins smoked by Stars in blowout loss
In a start that’s become defined by an unsuccessful quest for consistency, hope that Jim Montgomery and the Bruins had finally found their strongest building block yet came with Tuesday’s third-period comeback win over the Blues.
But that hope was dashed in almost record time, really, as the Stars scored on their first shot of the evening (and just 69 seconds into the game) and pounded another six goals by the Bruins’ Jeremy Swayman on the way to a 7-2 victory over the Bruins at the American Airlines Center.
This marked the third time this season that the Bruins had allowed at least six goals in a game.
But this was not your traditional blowout loss for the Bruins, really, as the Bruins found themselves down by just one goal through 20 minutes of play, and actually had a power-play opportunity to draw themselves even with Dallas. But once that failed to materialize for Montgomery’s club, and it often has this season, the mistakes piled up (and in rapid succession), and allowed the Stars to strike with three goals in a 5:34 span in the late stages of the second period.
Each goal felt easier than the one that came before, too, with the fight seemingly beat out of the Black and Gold with each passing goal, which was good enough to give Dallas a four-goal lead through 40 minutes of play.
And in the event that a four-goal lead through 40 wasn’t enough, the Stars needed just 47 seconds to push their lead out to five, and kicked the extra point through Swayman and the Bruins with a Mason Marchment goal with 2:41 left in regulation.
The seven goals surrendered by Swayman were a career high.
The Bruins, meanwhile, got their goals in this contest from Charlie Coyle and David Pastrnak.
Coyle’s strike, which came all the way back in the first period when it was still a game, was good for his first five-on-five goal of the season, and gives him two goals and three points in his last six games.
Pastrnak, meanwhile, struck for his team-leading eighth goal of the season.
Up front, the Bruins made a lineup change with Patrick Brown thrown in the lineup for Tyler Johnson. Brown finished his 2024-25 NHL season debut with four hits and two shots in 12 minutes of action. On the backend, Jordan Oesterle filled in for the injured Hampus Lindholm and made his season debut, and finished this beatdown with a block and two hits in 14:07.
The Bruins will return home for a Saturday matinee against the Blues.
3 Stars: No silver linings for Bruins in Dallas
Third Star: Tyler Seguin
Nov 7, 2024; Dallas, Texas, USA; Dallas Stars center Tyler Seguin (91) in action during the game between the Dallas Stars and the Chicago Blackhawks at the American Airlines Center. (Jerome Miron/Imagn Images)
Thursday night in Dallas, perhaps fittingly, saw ex-Bruins forward Tyler Seguin become the first member of the 2010 NHL Draft class to hit the 800-point mark. And entering this contest sitting at 799 career points, Seguin needed just 69 seconds to hit that milestone, as he picked up the secondary helper on the game’s first goal.
“It’s cool, I guess,” Seguin, who spent the first three years of his career with the Bruins, said of collecting point No. 800 in the victory. “I wasn’t aware of it except for my wonderful wife, who gets into hockey all of a sudden since she met me and texted me after last game and she said you better get it against Boston. Glad it was done the first shift.”
Seguin collected a secondary helper by the night’s end, and finished this contest with six shots on goal.
In case you’re wondering, the Bruins are officially without any sort of connections to the Seguin trade tree from 2013. Loui Eriksson and Joe Morrow both departed as free agents (Morrow is currently playing in the EIHL in the United Kingdom), Matt Fraser left Boston via waivers (he’s currently playing in Austria), and Reilly Smith was flipped to Florida in the 2015 trade that brought the late Jimmy Hayes to Boston. Hayes was ultimately bought out by the Bruins and not traded, thus ending all branches of the trade tree from Boston’s point of view.
Second Star: Matt Duchene
Nov 14, 2024; Dallas, Texas, USA; Stars defenseman Thomas Harley (55) and center Matt Duchene (95) celebrates a goal scored by Duchene against the Boston Bruins during the first period at the American Airlines Center. (Jerome Miron/Imagn Images)
The Bruins had circled a strong start as the key to this game.
But the Stars’ Matt Duchene said ‘nah’ to that.
In Duchene’s 14:15 of five-on-five ice time, Dallas controlled the shot attempts 17-6, outshot Boston 14-3, out-chanced them 9-3, and most importantly outscored them by a 2-1 mark. In addition to the goal, Duchene also added an apple, and finishes the season series against Boston with two goals and five points in two games.
Just an absolutely fantastic performance from Duchene.
First Star: Evgenii Dadonov
Nov 14, 2024; Dallas, Texas, USA; Dallas Stars right wing Evgenii Dadonov (63) scores a goal against Boston Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman (1) during the second period at the American Airlines Center. (Jerome Miron/Imagn Images)
A first-period penalty shot awarded to Evgenii Dadonov was almost certainly an early Christmas gift. (I’m honestly not sure it was a penalty at all, let alone a penalty worthy of a penalty-shot opportunity.) But the officials called what they called on the ice, and Dadonov certainly made it count in what was a gigantic goal for the Stars.
On the board with the penalty shot snipe through Swayman, the penalty shot marker was the fourth of Dadonov’s NHL career, which ties him with Mats Sundin, Joe Sakic, David Vyborny and Charlie Conacher for fifth place on the NHL’s all-time list. The only players with more penalty-shot goals: Pavel Bure (7), Brad Marchand (6), Mario Lemieux (6), and Vincent Lecavalier (5), according to NHL Stats.
“I mean I knew I was going to shoot but didn’t want to do it,” Dadonov said of his penalty-shot attempt. “To be honest, I was pretty tired so I just shot, I opened my blade and saw the hole and shot.”And Dadonov didn’t stop with just the penalty shot goal, as he also banged home what was the fifth goal of the night for the Stars, scored with 10 seconds left in the middle frame to give the Stars a more-than-comfortable four-goal cushion through two periods of play.
