Bruins take another beating, lose 6-2 to Rangers

The Bruins are suffering from an identity crisis right now. They have completely forgotten who they’re supposed to be.

That tight-checking, highly competitive group that got off to such a good start to the season? That team has been nowhere to be found the last two nights, and 24 hours after being run out of Nassau Coliseum by the Islanders, the B’s had the same number done to them by the Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Friday.

Similar to Thursday’s game in Long Island, the B’s were in this one late in the second period only to give up four straight goals and lose 6-2 to the Blueshirts.

Yes, the B’s are riddled with injuries and some young players are being forced into and up in the lineup. But the biggest missing ingredient these last two nights has been their competitive DNA.

Smarting from a brutal third-period showing in their 7-2 drubbing at the hands of the Islanders on Thursday, the Bruins did not exactly come out for the first period breathing fire. In fact, the Rangers took it to them physically, both with their shoulders and their legs, winning races and battles all over the ice.

And at 13:03, the Blueshirts took a 1-0 lead. Operating on the left wing, Julien Gauthier shrugged off a Brandon Carlo check and was able to twirl back into the faceoff circle with time and space to fire a decent shot. With a heavy screen in front, Gauthier’s shot beat a helpless Tuukka Rask to the short side.

The B’s were lucky to get out of the first down by just a goal. Shortly after the goal, Urho Vaakanainen’s rush up the left side was turned back in the neutral zone and Alexis Lafreniere broke in on an odd-man rush, his backhander clanging the post.

The B’s got a little something going on a power play, but they could not score and went into the first break with a well-earned deficit. The Rangers had a 9-6 shot advantage and a 17-8 edge in hits.

The hits stats can often be misleading. Teams that are chasing the puck all night can rack up a lot of hits. That was not the case in the first for the Rangers, who used their edge in physical play to drive possession.

An opportunity presented itself right off the second-period puck drop when Sean Kuraly took a stick up high and the B’s went right back on the power play. They applied some decent pressure and nearly evened it when Jack Studnicka’s backhander went off off the crossbar.

And not long after that missed opportunity, the Rangers made it 2-0 at 2:32. The teenage Lafreniere, the first overall pick in the last draft, made his first NHL assist a beauty, zipping a cross-ice feed to Ryan Strome, who beat Rask from a prime scoring area at the bottom of the right circle.

Finally, that seemed to get the Bruins’ attention and they pushed back. Shortly after Trent Frederic buried a Ranger in the neutral zone, the B’s got on the board.

Charlie McAvoy made a nice self-pass off the boards to penetrate the offensive zone and dished to Brad Marchand, who tried to set up David Pastrnak for the one-timer. Pastrnak did not have a good angle on the puck and, with goalie Alexander Georgiev over-committing to the shot, he pushed it to Patrice Bergeron for an easy tap-in at 4:02.

That gave Bergeron his 889th career point, moving him past Bobby Orr for fifth place in points in club history.

The B’s appeared poised to climb back in this one, especially after they got Brendan Lemieux to take a roughing penalty on Jake DeBrusk after DeBrusk jammed the net. And on the power play, Charlie Coyle nearly evened it when he had some space over Georgiev’s glove but hit the post.

But then things fell apart again.

First, Marchand took a high-sticking penalty off an offensive zone penalty, and though the Rangers didn’t score on that PP, the Blueshirts gained some momentum. And when Nick Ritchie took an offensive zone tripping penalty with 1:18 left in the period, the sky fell for the second straight night.

Ten seconds after Ritchie took a seat in the box, Colin Blackwell tipped an Adam Fox blue-line shot past Rask to give the Rangers their two-goal lead back.

They weren’t done. Just 12 seconds later, Chris Kreider easily shook off a Vaakanainen check attempt behind the Bruins net, came out on the other side and threw the puck on net, banking it off McAvoy and in.

It was shaping up as one of those nights. Again.

The Rangers tacked on two more in the first four minutes of the third and the only objective left was to mitigate the embarrassment. Marchand scored his 10th of the season, his 300th career goal, but it did not come on a night he could enjoy it.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3suakSA