Usually, scrapping back from an early two-goal deficit, tying the score late in the third period, sending the game to overtime and salvaging a point in the standings is enough to go home satisfied. But at this point, one point alone won’t cut it for the Boston Bruins, which is all they earned on Saturday night at TD Garden in a 3-2 overtime loss to the Anaheim Ducks.
“It’s tough to take positives out of it, especially where we are in standings and stuff,” Morgan Geekie said. “Take it and learn from it, but you’re right. I think we really let those points slip away. We took a little bit to get going tonight. It shows resiliency to battle back, but at this time of year, I don’t think one point is just going to do it.”
Geekie tied the game at 2-2 with 1:11 left in the third period, blasting a one-timer from the left face-off dot off a feed from Mason Lohrei. The goal was quickly disallowed as the referees ruled that Bruins forward Elias Lindholm for goaltender interference. However, the call was overturned just as promptly following an official review, giving Geekie his 18th goal of the season.
But the review, the goal, and the comeback meant little in the end, as Leo Carlsson scored the deciding goal for the Ducks at the 3:39 mark of the extra frame.
It had been 14 days since many of the Bruins last saw game action, and it looked it to start the game. While they struggled to shake off the rust, Anaheim landed seven of the first eight shots on goal.
“When you don’t play games for a couple of weeks, and you’re away a majority of that time, it’s more just your execution levels off,” said Brad Marchand. “Your legs take a little bit to come back, but everybody is in the same boat. You kind of expect sloppy games, so you just got to try to get that out right away.”
The Bruins didn’t. They nearly made it to the intermission unscathed but instead headed to the dressing room with a cascade of boos raining down on them after Trevor Zegras and Frank Vatrano struck with a pair of goals for Anaheim in the waning minutes of the period.
“We deserve that,” Lindholm said. “We knew we played bad. When it happens, you come into the locker room, and everyone’s pissed off and want to be better. That time, we deserve to get booed. Obviously, we weren’t playing nearly good enough, so we picked it up after. It was a wake-up call for everyone.”
Lindholm put the Bruins on the board while on a five-on-three power play in the second period when a shot of his leaked through Ducks goalie John Gibson for his 11th goal of the season, cutting the deficit in half.
Gibson finished the night with 19 saves on 20 shots for the Ducks before exiting at the start of the third period. Lukas Dostal had 10 saves on 11 shots in relief.
Jeremy Swayman started in net for the Bruins. Despite the team’s best efforts, he kept it in the game, stopping 26 of 29 shots that came his way.
“Every point matters, and tonight was a great example of that,” said Swayman. “We didn’t just roll over. We knew that we had to take something away from this game. A win would have been great, but what I love about this team is the resiliency and the understanding of how important points are right now. That’s something that we need to take into serious consideration every game and lock it down.”
It seems, though, that the Bruins aren’t taking it seriously enough.
With 24 games left on their schedule, they did little to improve their standing in the Eastern Conference wildcard race, even with many of the teams surrounding them also losing on Saturday.
The Bruins are leaving points on the table and settling for just the crumbs.
