Not great.
The Boston Bruins battled back despite a rough start, but couldn’t sustain offensive pressure as the team fell 6-3 to the Nashville Predators on Tuesday night at the TD Garden.
The loss drops the Bruins to 1-5-2 in their last eight games.
“The start of the game, we mismanaged pucks,” Interim head coach Joe Sacco said. “We gave the puck to them too much in the first period.”
“We fell behind, but we battle back in the third period to tie the game up,” he said. “You feel the energy in the building, the crowd and then just to not be able to sustain any momentum.”
The Predators took an early lead, taking advantage of game mismanagement by the Bruins and a lackluster offensive period where the Bruins only had five shots on net.
The Bruins opened the scoring, as been the case this season, their opponent answered back with a quick goal. The Predators would do the same in the second period, regaining their lead under 90 seconds after Jordan Oesterle netted his first goal as a Bruin to tie the game.
Pavel Zacha’s line helped the Bruins sustain some offensive momentum to start the third and was rewarded with Morgan Geekie blasting a one-timer into the netting to tie things up at 3-3.
But again, as was the story of this game, Nashville got the go-ahead following poor execution to make a clear and allow Michael McCarron to find Jonathan Marchessault for a quick shot past Jeremy Swayman.
“I feel like that’s kind of happened all season for us, you know, we’ll gain some momentum and then a sloppy play, turnovers and then the puck ends up in the back of the net,” Oesterle said. “Then we lose momentum and are back chasing the game. It’s tough playing that way.”
A minute later, Ryan O’Reilly added his second goal of the night and cushioned Nashville’s lead before Mark Jankowski soldified the Predators’ win with an empty-netter.
Here are the game’s highlights:
First period:
After winning a battle behind the net, Elias Lindholm sent a short pass to Charlie Coyle out front where he lifted a snap shot past Juuse Saros’ glove at 4:25 of the first period. 1-0 Bruins.
Unattended, Tommy Novak skated into the slot to put a wrist shot past Swayman at 5:32 of the first period. 1-1 game.
Luke Evangelista slid a pass over to Ryan O’Reilly where he put a snap shot top shelf past Swayman’s blocker at 11:33 of the first period. 2-1 Predators.
Second period:
Jordan Oesterle’s long shot beats Saros’ left skate with bodies out front to tie the game at 5:08 of the second period. 2-2 game.
Off a pass from O’Reilly, Steven Stamkos blasted a one-timer past Swayman from low inside the left-wing circle at 6:25 of the second period. 3-2 Predators. That tally made for two goals this game from the Predators scoring fast after the Bruins scored.
Third period:
Pavel Zacha’s line found some sustained offensive-zone time which allowed Zacha to find Morgan Geekie at the back door for a one-timer past Saros at 5:35 of the third period. 3-3 game. But the Bruins wouldn’t be able to sustain that offense for long.
Michael McCarron backhanded a pass to Jonathan Marchessault out front for a quick snap shot past Swayman’s glove at 8:28 of the third period. 4-3 Predators.
The Bruins were unable to clear. After Nashville stole the puck, O’Reilly batted down a pass from Stamkos to beat Swayman’s blocker at 9:31 of the third period. 5-3 Predators.
Mark Jankowski scored an empty-net goal at 17:53 of the third period. Final score: 6-3 Predators.
Game notes
- Sacco said it perfect during his press conference. The Bruins just initially fell behind due to bad puck management, poorly executed their game after goals and couldn’t sustain pressure in the third period.
- The loss follows the team trading Trent Frederic in the afternoon. Sacco said Frederic was a “great character guy” and wished him the best. Sacco said he doesn’t know if it had an effect on the team, as he stated the team knows it has work to do and this is the business side of the game.
- The Bruins are still two points out of the wild card race, but still have more games played than those teams that have now crept higher.
- Charlie Coyle said he had a chance to text Trent Frederic after he was traded, saying Frederic is probably still in shock with what happened. “It stinks that it happens, part of business, unfortunately,” Coyle said. “He’s been such a good friend, teammate, player, I could go on and on, but it wouldn’t do justice right now.”
- Postgame, David Pastrnak reiterated the effect of losing momentum allowing quick goals. “Those goals we scored was, you know, tying goals in a tight game that we could grab the momentum after our goals,” Pastrnak said. “Unfortunately it went the other way and it’s not the first time that happened this season. So it’s definitely a momentum killer and we can win hockey games like this.”
- The Bruins will hit the road to face the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday at 7 p.m.