Highlights from the Bruins' 1-0 OT loss to Stars

Share

FINAL SCORE:  Stars 1, Bruins 0 (OT)

FROM JOE HAGGERTY

1. It didn’t look good for Patrice Bergeron midway through the second period as he got tangled up with Radek Faksa, and the Dallas forward drove him into the sideboards head and left shoulder first as both players fell to the ice. Bergeron was clearly shaken up afterward and left the bench for a time, but returned to the game later in the second period while appearing to be okay. Nobody questions Bergeron’s toughness at this point, but he showed it again after that nasty, scary-looking spill into the boards. As the game went on, Bergeron gave everything he could but it sure looked like the left shoulder was giving him some issues.  

2. Credit to Brad Marchand for stepping up and tackling Faksa after the hit on Bergeron, but Marchand also once again lost his cool later in the period. Marchand tapped Ben Bishop with his stick while waiting things out in front of the net on the forecheck, and Bishop then winced and acted like No. 63 gave him a two-hander to the leg. Marchand was whistled for a slash by a ref on the far side of the play, and then Marchand got another 10-minute misconduct for arguing the phantom slashing call after the fact. That’s the second time this season that Marchand has earned a misconduct for arguing a clearly bad call. Clearly Marchand has a gripe, but he needs to figure out a way to air his grievances without hurting his injury-plagued team by taking himself off the ice for an extra 10 minutes.

3. Credit Bruce Cassidy and the Bruins coaching staff for getting the B’s involved in a low-scoring game against the high-powered Stars while missing so many of their key defenders on the back end. They had two D-men making their NHL debuts and Torey Krug as the de facto No. 1 defenseman with so many established guys out of the lineup, and yet somehow it was a 0-0 game after two periods with the Stars managing just 18 shots on net.

4. Give Tuukka Rask credit, he was excellent in his first game back between the pipes after taking a personal leave of absence last weekend. Rask looked a little rusty early in the game when he needed Torey Krug to shovel a puck off the goal line after it squirted past him, but he made 36 saves in all and had things scoreless into overtime with an injury-plagued blueline corps for the B’s. The only puck that got past him was a 2-on-1 in overtime with just Matt Grzelcyk back as the lone line of defense for the Black and Gold. He even made the first couple of saves in that sequence before Jason Dickinson finally poked a loose puck past him.

5. It really feels like the B’s are missing Adam McQuaid in a big way, and that they really need a tough guy to police some things out on the ice. Radek Faksa drove Patrice Bergeron shoulder and head-first into the boards, and once again it forced Brad Marchand into dropping the gloves and jumping Faksa to answer for the hit. Then later in the third period Marchand was once again driven to the ice in a scrum while Roman Polak threw a punch at Torey Krug that drew only a minor penalty from the refs. Boston’s best players are taking a lot of abuse from other teams with liberties being taken left, right and center. The Bruins need somebody added to their lineup that can answer for that stuff, and make opponents a little less eager to target Boston’s best players as they’re doing without fear right now. 

BOX SCORE.

BRUINS RECORD: 10-6-3

HIGHLIGHTS:

KINSLER HONORED BEFORE GAME

KRUG SAVES ONE

BERGERON INJURY SCARE

POLAK AND KRUG GO AT IT

CLIFTON MAKES NOISE IN NHL DEBUT

DALLAS WITH THE DAGGER

UP NEXT

SATURDAY: at Coyotes, 8 p.m. (NESN)

Click here to download the new MyTeams App by NBC Sports! Receive comprehensive coverage of your teams and stream the Celtics easily on your device.

NBC SPORTS BOSTON SCHEDULE

Contact Us