BOSTON – All good things must come to an end, and for the Bruins that meant that their four-game winning streak officially went by the boards on Sunday night.
The Bruins didn’t exactly expend the required high energy or solid work ethic in dropping a 4-2 game to the Edmonton Oilers where they were outshot by a 36-25 margin and beaten in other high-effort categories like hits and blocked shots.
The loss was the first appearance for Tuukka Rask in the last five games for the Bruins, and he dropped to 3-8-2 on the season while allowing three goals on 35 shots. The B’s had won the previous four games in a row all with Anton Khudobin between the pipes, and it makes one wonder what Boston will do for Wednesday night’s home tilt against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The Bruins had an early lead after a decent first period where they got a dazzling toe drag power play goal from David Pastrnak, but that was really the only big highlight of the night for the Black and Gold. The Oilers responded with a pair of goals in the middle period. The first was from noted Bruins Killer Patrick Maroon, who roofed a cross-ice pass from Zack Kassian that Tuukka Rask wasn’t able to stop. The second was an Adam Larsson shot from the high point that bounced off a couple of B’s players on its way to fluttering in past Rask.
The Bruins got one back on a nifty Riley Nash pass to David Krejci cutting to the net with speed, but that was about all the Bruins could muster while getting outshot 17-5 in the second stanza. That set up a third period where the Oil took a final lead on a play that was far too easy for Edmonton: Leon Draisaitl carried the puck up left wing and found Ryan Strome all alone in the high slot for a deadly wrist shot past Rask.
Draisaitl capped it off with the empty net score with a little less than a minute to play to finally bury the Bruins.