Penguins sink Bruins in Black Friday showdown
After hanging a six-spot on the Islanders on Wednesday night out on Long Island, the Bruins didn’t wait too long to get involved in Friday’s head-to-head with the Penguins at TD Garden, with a Charlie Coyle strike on Tristan Jarry less than two minutes into puck drop.
But it would turn out to be all the offense the Bruins had to show for in what finished as a 2-1 loss to the Penguins, ‘good’ for the B’s second loss in their last three games.
The loss also continued what’s been a relatively flat week on Boston ice, as the Bruins mustered up just one goal on 32 shots against Jarry after getting blanked by the Canucks’ Kevin Lankinen in their previous home contest.
The marker, which came with assists to Trent Frederic and Tyler Johnson, was Coyle’s fifth goal of the season, and his first since Boston’s 5-1 loss at the hands of the Blue Jackets back on Nov. 18.
Coyle’s goal would be the lone tally of the period, which was ultimately headlined by some stellar work by the Bruins’ Jeremy Swayman, with 12 saves on 12 shots faced, including big-time stops on Drew O’Connor and Sidney Crosby over the course of the opening 20 minutes of action.
Swayman continued to deliver in the second period, too, with some fantastic stops in the first half of the period, including a dazzling glove save on an Anthony Beauvillier partial breakaway.
But for as strong as Swayman was playing, Boston’s late-period struggles continued and simply overwhelmed the club. As the Bruins lost a pair of defensive-zone faceoffs in the final minute, Sidney Crosby was given more than enough space to operate and feed Rickard Rakell for Pittsburgh’s first goal of the game, scored on their 26th shot of the night and with just 00.8 seconds left in the second period.
Excluding empty-net goals against, which almost always come in the final two minutes of a period, this marked the 10th time this season that the Bruins surrendered a goal in the final two minutes of the period, and the fifth time it had happened with under 30 seconds left in a period.
And with the Bruins and Penguins deadlocked at 1-1 into the third period, it was a net-front battle between Swayman and O’Connor that ultimately took Swayman’s eyes away from the play and opened the door for Philip Tomasino’s five-hole snipe at the 7:26 mark of the third period.
In pursuit of the game-tying tally, the Bruins landed eight of their 12 third-period shots on Jarry after the Tomasino strike, but ultimately could not find the back of the net to send this game to overtime.
The Bruins were especially punchless on the man advantage, as their power play stumbled to an 0-for-3 effort, and had a downright infuriating unwillingness to shoot the puck on their final power-play opportunity of the evening. That final power-play was headlined by David Pastrnak turning the puck over on a cross-ice pass attempt instead of simply unloading his one-time bomb towards the goal.
Going against a goaltender that entered play with an .868 save percentage and 4.34 goals against average through seven games this year, the Bruins simply didn’t have enough sustained pressure against the Penguins. Nor did they display the same ‘takeover’ ability they’ve had in certain periods and segments of play since making their coaching change back on Nov. 19.
Swayman took the hard luck loss for the Bruins, with 34 saves on 36 shots faced, and has now been provided just four total goals of offensive support in his last four outings, and one in his last two games.
Friday’s game also came with a homecoming for ex-Bruins defenseman Matt Grzelcyk, as the Charlestown, Mass. native made his first appearance at TD Garden as a visiting player. Grzelcyk spent the first 445 games of his NHL career as a Bruin, and has actually played the 61st-most games in a B’s sweater, which certainly snuck up on just about everybody.
The Bruins will have Saturday off before they return to the TD Garden ice for a Sunday head-to-head with the Canadiens for what will be the club’s Centennial Game.
Fans attending Sunday’s game are encouraged to be in their seats for 2:45 p.m., as the Bruins will go through a lengthy pregame ceremony celebrating the club’s 100-year anniversary.
