Bruins hardly at their best in loss

Top players don’t do much to aid the cause

November 17, 2009|Fluto Shinzawa, Globe Staff

The Bruins, who wiped out a 1-0 deficit when David Krejci set up Daniel Paille for a second-period goal, were less than two minutes away from entering the second intermission tied at 1-1 against the Islanders last night.

But for the second game in a row, a misplayed puck by one of their netminders resulted in a gut-punching goal. And as unfortunate as the mistake was, the more startling issue was the flat-line, zero-pushback response that followed, ultimately leading to a 4-1 Boston loss before 16,865 at TD Garden.

One game after Tim Thomas and Dennis Wideman couldn’t connect behind the Pittsburgh net, leading to a turnover and Pascal Dupuis’s overtime goal, Matt Moulson potted the winning goal when Tuukka Rask gave the puck away. Following a New York dump-in down the right-side wall, Rask had departed his crease to play the puck. According to coach Claude Julien’s system, Rask should have cleared the puck on the weak side by reversing it to an open Derek Morris, who could then trigger the breakout.

Instead, while facing the forechecking pressure of John Tavares, Rask threw the puck, like a well-marbled ribeye steak, into the teeth of the New York attack on the strong side. Rask’s clearing attempt went through Zdeno Chara and onto the wall for Richard Park, who was waiting to seal off the pass. Park spotted an unmarked Moulson in front. Moul son beat Rask at 18:49 to make it a 2-1 game.

“It’s a mistake that a young goaltender made,’’ Julien said. “These are mistakes from a guy like him that you hope he will learn from. We don’t go back out the strong side. Sometimes those are habits, right? We had a guy behind him who was wide open. He yelled at him. He didn’t hear him. It’s a mistake.

“I’m not going to start blaming every D because the goaltender made a bad decision. We have players who make bad decisions on the ice that are responsible for goals. We shouldn’t exclude the goaltenders. Timmy did the same thing. He can say whatever he wants. Our D’s had peeled off. If he moved in, it’s over. Those are mistakes that individuals are making right now. We have to correct those. A lot of that stuff is what’s costing us games right now.’’

Little was seen from the Bruins after that.

“Tonight is one of those games where you can look at the stats, take those stats, and throw them in the garbage,’’ Julien said. “We’re almost 70 percent on draws. We outshoot them. Big deal. They were still the better team because they wanted it more than we did. It’s as simple as that. That’s something that, at one point, we didn’t accept, and we did something about it. Hopefully, in the very, very near future, we’re going to turn that kind of thing around.’’