BOSTON – The Bruins fell to the Oilers, 3-1. Still, it is worth noting that the Bruins’ head coach, goaltender, and a defenseman all praised the Bruins’ five-on-five play against one of the league’s most talented teams. They also mentioned the penalty kill, which held ground against the league’s best power play (Edmonton entered the game at 32.6%). Boston killed three of the four Oilers’ power play chances.
The Bruins held their own at five-on-five, especially considering who the Oilers can put out on the ice at any given moment.
“I was really happy with our five-on-five game,” said Head Coach Marco Sturm, “we made one mistake, a little mistake. It cost us one goal. But other than that, I thought it was pretty good.”
The mistake Sturm brings up is a miscue that went off Charlie McAvoy’s stick, giving Max Jones a scoring chance. Jones turned a shot on net, which Jeremy Swayman stopped, only for Quinn Hutson to grab the rebound and tuck it into the net.
Andrew Peeke echoed his coach’s assessment of the Bruins’ play: “Five-on-five, I thought we did a good job; we defended really well. Didn’t give them too many chances, we had a couple of looks ourselves.”
The numbers back that up. The Bruins steered more shots on net and generated more scoring chances at five-on-five than the Oilers, per Natural Stat Trick. The Corsi and Fenwick numbers favored the Bruins at five-on-five, too. The Bruins were dictating the offensive opportunities, getting more on the Oilers’ goaltenders, and doing a solid job transitioning the puck from defense to offense in five-on-five play.
Courtesy of naturalstattrick.com
“We put a good five-on-five game together tonight,” said Jeremy Swayman, “So it’s something to build off going forward.” The Bruins have three more home games in this homestand. If the Bruins can play a similar five-on-five game against Vancouver, they’ll be more than just fine.
However, it was Quinn Hutson’s goal that put the Oilers ahead, and it would prove to be the game-winning goal. Although it was referred to as “a little mistake,” it turned out to be costly. It was not the only expensive mistake by the Bruins last night. Connor McDavid’s shorthanded goal also dampened the Bruins’ special teams performance, but there were still some positives to take away from this one.
“Special teams, yeah, you can’t give up one,” Sturm said. “And you can’t give up one on the power play, too, so that’s a hard one.”
With the threat of Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins on the other end of the ice, there is little room for error. And when two of them are killing penalties, there is little room for error on the power play, too.
Going into Thursday night, Edmonton’s power play was connecting at a 32.6% rate. After the game, the number fell to 31.9%, indicating the Bruins did their job on the kill. The Oilers are scoring roughly one out of every three power plays. The Bruins held them to one power play goal on four chances. It was not perfect, but the Bruins did well at limiting the damage.
“I got a great PK in front of me, but they do their job well,” Jeremy Swayman said. “And again, they’re gonna make plays, it’s a high-end skill team over there, so I thought we did a good job weathering the storm and getting momentum kills at the right time.”
The momentum kills that Swayman mentioned came in the third period. Mason Lohrei took a cross-checking minor that came with 13:41 remaining. Three minutes later, Marat Khusnutdinov drew a tripping minor, much to the dismay of the TD Garden crowd. The Bruins’ head coach did not hold back about his thoughts on some of the calls, either. The Bruins killed both of those third-period penalties. When you are down two goals, those are not the times that you want to go shorthanded.
“Sometimes special teams can win games in that way,” said Andrew Peeke.
Unfortunately for the Bruins, that was the case on Thursday night. Their five-on-five play was solid, and the team knows that, but the special teams battle went in Edmonton’s favor and ultimately earned the Oilers two points.
The Boston Bruins are off on Friday; there is no scheduled practice or media availability. The Bruins continue their homestand with the Vancouver Canucks in town on Saturday night, then the Ottawa Senators on Sunday. Both games are at 7:00 PM from the TD Garden.