Here's what we learned from the Bruins' 4-3 shootout loss to the Rangers

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1) The Bruins continue a trend of blowing third period leads, which is something that’s a far cry from the recent past. The Bruins had a 3-1 lead headed into the final 20 minutes of regulation against the Rangers and ended up allowing a pair of goals to tie things up prior to New York taking it after a handful of tries in the shootout. Over the last few years the Bruins have been dynamite in the final 20 minutes, and last season they were really a lock to win games when they had a good lead 40 minutes into the game. This season it’s been different story. They’ve blown third period leads multiple times in recent weeks, and they did it again with a couple of key mistakes (one on a defensive breakdown on a stretch pass with Brandon Carlo and Zdeno Chara on the ice) and a bad penalty (Charlie McAvoy cross-checking with in the second half of the third period) that directly led to two goals. It did feel perhaps a little different this time around given that it was the third game in four nights for the Bruins, and it didn’t seem like the skating legs and decision-making were there for Boston in the waning moments of the game. But regardless of the reason, it still adds up to a feeling that third period leads aren’t safe with the Bruins this season and that’s going to be a problem as the games get more important down the stretch for the Black and Gold.

2) There’s really no good reason for Patrice Bergeron to not be included in a shootout that goes three men deep, never mind if it gets to five or six shooters. But there it was at Madison Square Garden with Peter Cehlarik, Charlie McAvoy and Danton Heinen all getting chances in a shootout loss with No. 37 never even getting on the ice. Bruce Cassidy was asked about it following the game, and indicated that it was a coach’s decision rather than in injury problem or some other good reason. Instead Cassidy simply wanted to give a few other players a chance while going off statistics that goalie coach Bob Essensa has compiled in choosing the list of shooters. Cassidy always has an interesting combination of proven scorers and hunches when selecting his shootout participants in the rare times when the Bruins get there with a point on the line, but there really is no excuse for a shootout loss where one of Brad Marchand, David Pastrnak or Patrice Bergeron hasn’t had a chance with the game potentially on their stick. On Wednesday night it was Bergeron that didn’t get his number called and it really doesn’t make a lot of sense for the second-leading goal scorer on the team.

3) On the other hand, give Bruce Cassidy credit for mixing and matching his forwards enough to at least get the loser point. He got a goal out of the struggling Danton Heinen by installing him on the top line right wing. After getting scratched for a couple of games where he was forced to watch from the press box, Heinen responded by scoring a goal and having one of his better games in a while. Heinen camped in front of the net and threw a high tip on a point shot for his third goal in his last 21 games, and generally responded pretty well to his plum assignment getting to skate with Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand. He also finished with three shots on net, four shot attempts and a plus-1 rating for his efforts. It remains to be seen how much of a run Heinen might get on that top line, but three goals scored including a couple of even strength strikes is a pretty good sign offense is getting a little more spread out. Cassidy also got a five-on-five goal from David Pastrnak teaming up with David Krejci on the new-look second line with Cehlarik as well. So one will wonder if we see the Bruins spread out the forwards for a bit on the top two lines to see if they can roll with them offensively rather than pay heavy prices for a rental winger at the trade deadline. Last night might have been a sneak preview of what we may see more in the second half, but that remains to be seen after the B’s didn’t get the desired result in New York on Wednesday night.

Plus

-- Danton Heinen finished with a goal to snap out of a 2-goals-in-20-games funk after being scratched for the last two games, and had one of his better games with three shots on net and four total shots attempted to go along with his gritty tip-in score.

-- Mika Zibanejad scored the first goal for the Rangers and was the best player on the ice for either team while playing a 200-foot game and seven shot attempts in 22:51 of ice time.

-- Patrice Bergeron was excellent as usual with his 19th goal of the season, nine shot attempts and 10-of-16 face-off wins, which makes his absence in the shootout all the more frustrating.

Minus

-- It’s too bad because Charlie McAvoy played a gritty game with hits, blocked shots and some pretty decent back-end play in almost 25 minutes of ice time, but his third period cross-checking penalty opened the door for the game-tying goal. It was the biggest mistake of the game for the Bruins on an avoidable play.

-- Boo Nieves had an epic dive on an unintentional collision with Sean Kuraly that led to matching penalties for Kuraly and Jimmy Vesey, and caused a dust-up between the two teams on a pretty innocuous play.

-- Trent Frederic has had some good games and some rookie-looking games with the Bruins this season, and Tuesday night was one of the latter with no shots on net, no real physical element and on ice for a goal against in just seven plus minutes of ice time.  

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