Chemistry has been elusive for all the Bruins’ forward lines except for the Mark Kastelic line. Spending an inordinate amount of time in the penalty box is not going to help them find.
The B’s went to the box six times in the first two in Nashville on Tuesday and that went a long way to handing them their second straight loss, this time a 4-0 loss at the hands of the previously winless Predators.
They come home with a 1-1-1 record on the three-game road trip, but it doesn’t get any easier with Dallas (Thursday) and Toronto (Saturday) on deck.
The B’s have now committed a league-leading 40 minors, and have scored one goal in their last six periods.
Coach Jim Montgomery changed up his top nine forwards, loading up a first line with Brad Marchand, Elias Lindholm and David Pastrnak and inserting Max Jones into the lineup on a line with Charlie Coyle and Trent Frederic.
But not much clicked early, and it didn’t help that Pastrnak took an offensive zone hooking penalty 13 seconds into the game to mix up the lines from the get-go. The B’s could not sustain any offensive zone 5-on-5 pressure while Predators had numerous high danger chances in the opening 20 minutes. Jeremy Swayman needed to be sharp early (13 first period saves).
Mark Kastelic tried to get the bench going with a fight against defenseman Luke Schenn — feeding the veteran with repeated rights until collapsing on top of Schenn – but the even-strength offense remained anemic.
The B’s did have a good looking power play in the first, but Juuse Saros denied Pavel Zacha at the top of the crease on the B’s best chance.
When Jones took his second minor of the period – and the B’s third infraction of the period – the Preds finally made them pay. Just 11 seconds after Jones took his seat, Ryan O’Reilly deflected a Roman Josi shot past Swayman for the 1-0 Nashville lead at 17:16.
Pastrnak had an opportunity to immediately burst the Preds’ bubble immediately on the next shift when he had a clean breakaway, but Saros read his move to the backhand well and steered it wide.
The B’s came out for the second period like they were determined to take over. They got the first five shots on net and, for the first time, some good offensive zone time.
But then their season-long penchant for taking penalties submarined what had been a good effort and, before the period was over, they found themselves down, 2-0.
First, Nikita Zadorov took his seventh penalty in as many games. The B’s were able to kill that off.
But then later in the period, Charlie McAvoy was nailed with a double minor when he caught Steven Stamkos in the nose with his stick on a backhand clear attempt. McAvoy had gone back on what he thought was an icing but it was waved off and he found himself in a battle for which he wasn’t ready.
The B’s did a stellar job of killing off both minors but, just as McAvoy got out of the box, a fluky bounce led to a Tommy Novak goal at 16:55. Luke Evangelista tried to make a backdoor pass through the crease but Swayman deflected it out into the slot to Novak, who just sneaked a shot through Swayman at 16:55.
Much like they did in the second period, the B’s came out strong in the third. But as an indication of how things are going for the B’s offensively, Pastrnak hhad another breakaway and somehow fell down, crashing into Saros. The B’s also had another power play that was effective at everything but putting the puck in the net.
Finally, with the B’s pressing for something, anything, they gave up a 2-on-1 and Gus Nyqvist kept it to beat Swayman under the glove with 7:13 remaining to put a bow on the Preds’ first win of the season.
Montgomery pulled Swayman then for a Hail Mary, or maybe just a little 6-on-5 practice, and it didn’t take long before Evangelista hit the empty net.
