Another loss to the New York Islanders and the Bruins fall to 13-6-4. An outstanding game in net from both goaltenders leads to a shootout where Anthony Beauvillier finishes it off.
The player of the game in my opinion is Brad Marchand, he generated a lot of chances and was very complete on both ends of the ice. He tallied an assist to David Pastrnaks 400th career point in just over 400 career games. Marchand was also being his typical self, grinding in the corners and getting under the oppositions skin. At one point he was on top of Oliver Wahlstrom throwing some punches. But overall, I think he played a very good complete game and was clearly a step ahead of most players on the ice.
It was a physical hard fought game from both sides where the Boston Bruins outplayed the Islanders but per usual the Bruins could not score a goal to save their life. If the Bruins want to finish off these games where they are outplaying their opponents they have to solve the scoring issue. Getting past Semyon Varlamov has been a huge issue for the Bruins this year. No scoring was another reason they lost to New Jersey a couple days ago.
I think the game plan is clear after this loss to the Islanders. We need to get more scoring and there are multiple ways to go. Get Jake Debrusk going or acquire one in a trade. Boston will most likely meet NYI in the playoffs and we are going to have to find a way to beat them in their own barn. As David Pastrnak said in the post-game, "If we won in a shootout I'd be up here saying how great we played". I don't think I could have said it better myself and that is an accurate description of the game.
Bruce Cassidy had some similar words in the post-game saying:
“We were the better team… didn’t have much luck around the net”
He also added that he that they had some issues with Islanders forward Matt Barzals zone entries but overall he was impressed with Bostons effort from start to finish. Along with the game from Jack Studnicka who had numerous scoring chances and a solid impact despite playing on the wing.
The Bruins will look to get back into the win column March 11th versus Mika Zibanejad and the New York Rangers.
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