But when Galiardi absorbed the defenseman’s hit and dished the puck to an all-alone David Jones, it was quite clear that Ference had been the last line of defense in front of Tuukka Rask. Jones hurtled in on Rask and fired a shorthanded shot over the goalie’s glove at 16:50 for the fourth and game-winning goal in the Bruins’ 4-3 loss before 16,393 at TD Garden yesterday.
“I actually counted wrong,’’ Ference said. “I thought that was Krejci going into the pile, not Hunwick. It was kind of surprising.’’
The confluence of mistakes - the inability of three Bruins to overpower Galiardi for the puck being the more glaring of the sins - was the most damaging in a game stuffed with mental errors.
For the most part, compared with the 4-1, season-opening dog against Washington and the 6-1 embarrassment against Anaheim, Bruins coach Claude Julien has been satisfied with his team’s effort.
But Julien, a master of detail, has been left without answers when it comes to explaining his players’ lack of hockey acumen, which has left the Bruins in the rubble of a 2-3 home stand.
“When your head isn’t all there, you don’t skate and play like you should,’’ Julien said. “You can skate with cement boots or you can play with wings. When you feel good, everything is clear in your mind and you feel good about yourself, we do play with those wings. Right now, anybody’s who seen our team before and seen them now, we’re not even skating the way we have in the past. Somewhere, we’ve got to get that energy in our legs. That will result in better forechecking, more physical play, better scoring chances. If we’re skating well, maybe we don’t give up as many goals because we’re backchecking a lot better.’’
