The numbers will say the Boston Bruins should’ve defeated the San Jose Sharks Sunday night at SAP Center, but there are only two stats that actually matter.
The first is 3-1, which was, of course, the final score in favor of the Sharks. The other is seven, which is the amount of penalties the Bruins committed.
Spending a total of 10:26 killing off penalties, the Bruins were never able to maintain any sort of momentum. Rather than actually playing, Boston’s most impactful players were resigned to watching most of the game from the bench.
It didn’t help that Sharks goalie Yaroslav Askarov fended off practically each of the 34 shots the Bruins fired at him, aside from one from Morgan Geekie in the third period, that is. Jeremy Swayman played just as well, making 28 saves on 30 shots for Boston, if not better. After all, it was his team who spent the majority of the night shorthanded, and it was he who bailed them out time and time again.
Even with all the penalties the Bruins took, they were still quite successful on the kill, surviving five of the six shorthanded situations they faced, including a prolonged stint down two men.
The only one they didn’t make it through came when Macklin Celebrini snapped a wrist shot inside the far post and past a screened Swayman to make it 2-0 Sharks at 11:45 of the second period.
Geekie pulled Boston back within one at 10:02 of the third period.
Knowing they desperately needed a goal, the Bruins deployed Geekie, along with David Pastrnak, and Pavel Zacha in search of some sort of offensive spark. The three wreaked havoc in the offensive zone, working with Hampus Lindholm and Henri Jokiharju to move the puck back and forth and side to side as they skated circles around the Sharks.
Eventually, after Pastrnak skated the puck behind Askorov’s cage for what felt to be too many times to count, he dished a backhand pass over to Geekie at the back door for him to score his 17th goal of the season and fifth thus far through the Bruins’ road trip.
It was the kind of shift the Bruins had been searching for ever since San Jose started the scoring way back at 15:53 of the first period with a goal from Shakir Muhkamadulin.
But it was far too little, and far too late.
Boston pulled Swayman in the final minutes, but all that did was leave an exposed net for San Jose’s Collin Graf to hit with 1:07 remaining left to go.
After three games in California, the Bruins will depart having gained just two points and an overall record of 13-11-0. They’ll try to end the road trip on a high note when they visit the New York Islanders Wednesday night.
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