Talking points from the B's loss to the Rangers. . .
GOLD STAR: Mika Zibanejad certainly wasn’t a dominant figure in the shots created department and he was only 11-for-30 in the face-off circle while getting his lunch handed to him on the draw for the most part. But he made the plays for the Rangers when it mattered scoring two of the three goals scored by the Rangers with the first one as a tipped shot camped in front of the net, and then he scored the game-winner on the power play midway through the third period as well. He topped 20 minutes of ice time, created four shot attempts, had three takeaways and made the plays when it mattered for the Blueshirts. There weren’t enough guys that did that in Black and Gold on Saturday night.
BLACK EYE: Tuukka Rask was done for the night in the first period after making just six saves, and it was due to a painful chain of events. Filip Chytil drove hard to the net, got shoved by Charlie McAvoy on the way there and somehow went airborne with his elbow catching Rask on the jaw in as violent of a collision as you’ll see at the net. Rask was helped off the ice by teammates and medical staff, and was diagnosed with a concussion a short time afterward with no chance to return to the game. It’s a good thing Rask has the bye week and All-Star weekend to rest and recover, but it remains to be seen if he’s going to be okay when the action resumes after that. That’s really unfortunate given how well Rask had been playing going into Saturday night.
TURNING POINT: The Bruins had a four-minute power play in the first period after Ryan Lindgren caught David Krejci with a high stick, and they did absolutely nothing with it. There was zero urgency, there was almost no real setup of the PP formation in the offensive zone and hence there were as many shorthanded rushes for the Rangers as there were shots on net for the Bruins. It was a horrible way for the Bruins to start the game from a momentum perspective, and it showed a group that seemed to have their minds on their bye week plans rather than the job at hand. As it turns out that’s really how the entire game ended up playing out.
HONORABLE MENTION: Danton Heinen had one of his best games of the season as he scored the first goal of the game, and was active winning battles and getting involved in the offensive zone. He finished with three shots on net in 12:27 of ice time, and he didn’t hesitate when Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson slid a pass back to him in the face-off circle as he crashed down to the net for a one-timer. It’s that kind of assertiveness and willingness to get involved without hesitating that hasn’t been present enough in Heinen’s game this season with just two points in January headed into Saturday night. But he scored his sixth goal of the season in Saturday’s loss and the hope has got to be that he can turn that into momentum in the final few months of the season.
BY THE NUMBERS: Minus-7 – The combined plus/minus of Zdeno Chara, Charlie McAvoy, Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak on Saturday night, which usually spells doom for the Bruins.
Boston Bruins
QUOTE TO NOTE: “Are we playing down to the level of competition or are we going to play to our standard? I think that the message from us as a coaching staff over the last two, three years is we need to play to our standard. So, I guess that’s the message we have to get back to and start measuring ourselves against our best selves, so to speak.” –Bruce Cassidy, on some recent losses to teams below the Bruins in the standings.
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