Bruins lose to the last-place Red Wings

DETROIT — The Bruins played with a certain swagger as they climbed their way to the top of the NHL standings in the first month of the season and it was fun to watch.

Now it might be time to inject a little humility to their approach.

After putting in two uneven performances against Pittsburgh (a win) and Montreal (a loss), the B’s received a serious comeuppance when the Detroit Red Wings, winless in 12 of their previous 13 games and mired in last place overall, scored three straight goals and hung on to beat the B’s, 4-2, at Little Caesars Arena on Friday night.

The B’s have now lost two straight in regulation for the first time this year and David Pastrnak had his 13-game point streak snapped. Newcomer Robby Fabbry scored two goals in his first game as a Red Wing.

At first blush it appeared as though this night would be as easy for the Bruins as the disparities in the two teams’ records would suggest.

The B’s got on the board at 1:09. Danton Heinen forced a turnover behind the Wings’ net, Peter Ceharlik grabbed the loose puck in the right circle and fed David Krejci a few feet away. Krejci simply beat goalie Jonathan Bernier over the shortside shoulder. It was a softy.

But as easily as the lead appeared, it evaporated almost as quickly when Dylan Larkin tied it up1:22 later. The speedy Larkin was able to turn on Connor Clifton on the left wing but had to take the puck behind the net. Larkin went for the wraparound and, though he wasn’t able to tuck it, the loose puck off his stick hit Patrice Bergeron’s skate and past Tuukka Rask.

The Bruins then took the next two penalties and on the second one — an obvious Brad Marchand interference in the offensive zone — the Wings took the lead.

Robby Fabbri — the former Blue playing his first game in Detroit after being obtained from St. Louis earlier in the week — took a nice cross-ice feed from Tyler Bertuzzi and ripped it past Rask for the 2-1 lead at 11:49.

The B’s got one power-play but they weren’t able to cash in and went into the first intermission with a one-goal deficit.

Meanwhile, coach Bruce Cassidy was playing a little shorthanded with Brett Ritchie a late scratch due to an upper injury. Steve Kampfer dressed in Ritchie’s place but did not play, with Cassidy instead choosing to double shift various forwards, including Krejci, Charlie Coyle and Anders Bjork.

Things got immediately worse in the second period. David Pastrnak took his second penalty of the game and the third Bruin offensive zone infraction on the night.

The Wings had come into the game with the league’s 28th ranked PP, but the addition of Fabbri to it paid instant dividends. For at 1:30 of the second, he gave the Wings a two-goal lead when he again beat Rask on a one-timer off a Bertuzzi centering feed for his second of the game.

At that point, anyone who’d watch the B’s this year was expecting some kind of push-back. Nothing came, for too long of a stretch. Finally, Marchand, responding to crosscheck in the back from Filip Hronek, dropped the gloves with Czech defenseman, eventually wrestling the bigger man to the ice.

The B’s had a good shift immediately after the fight but then had to kill off another penalty, But they B’s got another PP when Valtteri Filppula tripped Pastrnak. The B’s pulled to within a goal at 17:52 when, with Patrice Bergeron in front, Torey Krug’s shot from the blue line eluded Bernier.

It was very nearly a tie game when a loose puck squirted to Pastrnak at the side of the net, but Bernier robbed him of his 16th of the year with a great glove save.

But with the deficit down t just a goal, the B’s could only muster three shots on net in the third until the Wings ended it with an Anthony Mantha empty net goal.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2p5mnuC