I swear, the Bruins keep finding new ways to lose hockey games right now. As if their embarrassing Martin Luther King Day performance against Ottawa wasn’t bad enough, followed by a rigorous practice on Wednesday, you would think that the Bruins would come out the gates flying and bury the lowly Columbus Blue Jackets, a team who is amongst the league leaders in goals against. The Bruins lost a heartbreaker 3-2, but not all blame can be put on the Bruins; sometimes the men who wear the stripes can be held accountable for a loss.
The Bruins came out flying against Columbus and jumped on the board a little more than two minutes into the contest as Miroslav Satan pushed the puck up ahead to Trent Whitfield, who then broke out in a two on one with Michael Ryder, and the snakebitten Ryder roofed one top shelf over 2009 Rookie of the Year winner Steve Mason. It was certainly encouraging to see Ryder get his name back on the scoresheet and in a convincing way, since his last few goals have been fortunate bounces off of his body. The Bruins sustained good pressure on Columbus, but couldn’t seem to put more behind Mason. Columbus was able to tie the game as Dennis Wideman, who is having by far his worst season in the NHL, coughed up the puck coming out of his own end; he misfired on an outlet pass which instead went to Raffi Torres, who was then able to break in on a two on one with newly acquired Chris Clark, and Clark one timed it past Tuukka Rask tying the game at 1. From then on, Wideman heard the boos every time he touched the puck. Claude Julien seriously needs to sit him down for a few games. I can’t recall Hal Gill being this bad. Wideman has completely lost his confidence; I’m sure Julien calling him out to the media didn’t help the cause any, but something needs to be done. Later in the period, Mark Stuart left him the puck behind the net to carry the puck out of the zone, and Wideman proceded to skate forward without the puck. I was ready to jump down from 325 and strangle him. I can’t believe how bad he is and what we gave up to get him (Brad Boyes). Milan Lucic got into his first fight since returning to the lineup as he squared off with Jarrod Boll. Since they're two of the premier fighters in the league, it was a draw; they both got some good punches in, but the linesmen had to jump in to break it up since they were both visibly tired. The game was tied at 1 after 1 period of play, but it should have been a 1-0 Bruins lead if Wideman didn’t have his head up his ass.
The Bruins came out in the second period with not as strong of an effort. They started to sit back instead of attacking the net and getting quality scoring chances. The B’s did take the lead as Patrice Bergeron took the pass from Daniel Paille and fired a wrist shot one step over the blueline and put it glove side on Steve Mason. It was a beautiful wrist shot from Bergeron, and encouraging to see that he can get that kind of shot off even though he’s still playing with a broken left thumb. After that goal, the Bruins just sat back and let Columbus control the tempo of the game. I was starting to see the wheels fall off. Dennis Wideman gave the crowd another reason to boo him as he took a slapshot clearing the puck out of the zone and hit Blake Wheeler on the foot; thankfully, Wheeler was okay after limping off of the ice. I was sitting there shaking my head saying, “This guy just can’t do anything good right now.” The Bruins went into the room up 2-1 after two periods of play.
The Bruins came out for third and nearly put the game away as both David Krejci and Vladimir Sobotka had two glorious chances. Krejci missed an open net, and Sobotka took a slap shot from about 8 feet out and Mason sprawled to make a great save. Columbus dodged those bullets and really pushed the tempo, eventually tying the game as I predicted. Kris Russell came down the left wing boards and threw a pass over to Antoine Vermette who took a shot which was stopped by Rask, but Vermette got his own rebound to put it home to tie the game at 2. I couldn’t believe that one of the worst teams in hockey was giving us this kind of game. Columbus continued to mount the pressure. The referees had the final say in this outcome as referee Tom Kowal called Milan Lucic for a double minor high sticking penalty on Columbus forward Derrick Brassard when it was another Columbus player who accidently highsticked his own teammate. Just sixteen seconds after the penalty, Kristian Huselius fed Anton Stralman, who then fired a slapshot from the left point which RJ Umberger redirected past Rask. I couldn’t believe what had just happened. I can’t believe how bad the Bruins are at sealing the deal in the third period. They got off to such a great start and did nothing the rest of the way. I began to think that with this loss, the Bruins brass could have started questioning whether or not Claude Julien is worth keeping behind the bench; granted, he has a very good track record, but what else can he do to motivate these guys? I think if he hadn't just signed a three year extension this past September, and if former head coach Dave Lewis wasn’t still on the books, Julien would definitely be gone. This was one of the most difficult losses I can remember attending in recent memory.
The Line Combinations were as follows…
- Daniel Paille-Patrice Bergeron-Mark Recchi
- Milan Lucic-David Krejci-Blake Wheeler
- Miroslav Satan-Trent Whitfield-Michael Ryder
- Shawn Thornton-Vladimir Sobotka-Drew Larman
- Zdeno Chara-Derek Morris
- Matt Hunwick-Johnny Boychuk
- Dennis Wideman-Mark Stuart
The Scoring Summary…
- BOS: Michael Ryder assisted by Trent Whitfield and Miroslav Satan
- CLB: Chris Clark assisted by Raffi Torres
- BOS: Patrice Bergeron assisted by Daniel Paille and Zdeno Chara
- CLB: Antoine Vermette assisted by Kris Russell
- CLB: RJ Umberger assisted by Anton Stralman and Kristian Huselius
Bruins Goal Videos…
- Ryder: Jim Carrey dancing in Dumb and Dumber
- Bergeron: Rodney Dangerfield dancing in Caddyshack
Warmup Music…
- Foo Fighers - “Pretender”
- Disturbed - “Indestructable”
- U2 - “Elevation”
- Red Hot Chili Peppers - “Snow”
- Van Halen - "Panama"
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