Boston Bruins fall short in shootout loss to Columbus Blue Jackets

After slow start Bruins show life but the effort was not enough.

The Boston Bruins had no life in the first period but were able to tie the game in the third period. The effort wasn’t enough as they lost 4-3 to the Columbus Blue Jackets in a shootout.

The Bruins once again had a rough start to a game. Throughout the first period, they seemed to be playing defensive hockey. They were stuck in their zone and couldn’t get anything going in the offensive zone.

The Bruins were also playing some undisciplined hockey racking up three penalties in the first period.

One of the worst plays in the first period was the 2nd goal for the Blue Jackets. Defenseman Markus Nutivaara’s slap shot was just wide but instead of hugging the post Tuukka Rask decided to leave the net wide open and Boone Jenner was able to muscle one past Rask for his first goal of the season.

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The second period was a much stronger effort for the Boston Bruins. Zdeno Chara tried to energize teammates by getting his first fighting major of the season. A bout that left Blue Jackets forward Josh Anderson with a bloody nose. The Bruins were energized but then almost halfway through the second period, Tuukka Rask let one through his five-hole on Tyler Motte’s breakaway goal.

Patrice Bergeron was able to put the Bruins on the board near the end of the second period. With the Bruins on the powerplay, Danton Heinen passed the puck to Bergeron in the slot and Bergy blasted one past Sergei Bobrovsky for his second goal of the season.

Bruins show some fight in third period

The Boston Bruins tried to carry that momentum into the third period. With just under 10 minutes left in the game, the Bruins were inched closer as Torey Krug was able to put one past Bobrovsky to make it a 3-2 game. The goal was Krug’s second of the season. Then a few minutes later Brad Marchand who was returning from a bid in the penalty box sniped one past Bobrovsky and tied the game up for the Bruins. The goal was Marchand’s 8th of the season and 200th of his career.

It would be unfair to not mention a big save by Tuukka Rask on Blue Jackets forward Artemi Panarin who had a breakaway opportunity that would have made the game 4-1. Tuukka has been shaky this season but he is still able to make the big saves.

Questionable hits by Columbus

The Blue Jackets were laying the lumber but there were a few hits that seemed to be toeing the line of good hockey hits and some dirty plays. Markus Hannikainen had an ugly hit on Bruins Defenseman Paul Postma who was falling into the boards. As he was falling to the boards Hannikainen elbowed Postma and slammed his head into the boards.

Then later in the third period Oliver Bjorkstrand drilled Torey Krug in the corner and Kevan Miller was not pleased.

The Bruins defenseman ended up with an instigator penalty as well as a 10 minute game miscounduct.

Even OT couldn’t settle this game

After overtime the game was still tied. Bruins fans know the teams struggle in the shootout in the past so it appeared that all was lost. The only hope was that this was the team’s first shootout of the season.

Once again Bruins fans were dissapointed as the Bruins lost in the shootout. It was interesting to see Kenny Agostino out there to lead off in the shootout. You would expect David Pastrnak or Patrice Bergeron but it didn’t matter because Tuukka Rask still gave up two goals.

Rask had a mediocre game. In the first period he looked shaky and let up a terrible goal. Just like the rest of the team he seemed to improve after the first period making some big saves. In the shootout he gave up the goals and the Bruins needed him to make some stops

After a terrible start to the game the Bruins were able to salvage a point. It definitely wasn’t pretty but it was not all for nothing.

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The Bruins need to start games off well as they have seemed to be either lacking energy or not able to close out games. The Boston Bruins look to try and recover as they have a rematch against the Las Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday.