There’s something to be said for the Bruins overcoming a three-goal deficit and bringing things back even at 5-5, even in what finished as a 6-5 loss for the Black and Gold to the visiting Penguins on Thursday night at TD Garden.
But there’s also the fact that it never should’ve gotten to that point for Jim Montgomery’s squad.
“I don’t like our ice management [and] I don’t like the odd-man rushes we gave up, whether it’s on the power play or five-on-five,” Montgomery said following the loss. “We’re not making sound decisions. We’re forcing stuff when we don’t need to. We were getting plenty of offense. We didn’t have to force offense.”
To Montgomery’s point, it was an odd-man rush that led to the Charlie McAvoy penalty that opened the door for Pittsburgh’s sixth and final goal of the game. And the Bruins nearly pissed it away long before that, with a first-period power-play chance that somehow led to a Pittsburgh breakaway and a Pittsburgh 2-on-0 in a span of about 12 seconds. Not to mention the second-period breakaway that would’ve made it 6-2 for Pittsburgh had it not been for a kind post bailing Jeremy Swayman out of trouble.
“Our game management cost us the game,” Montgomery concluded.