Bruins come up short again, lose to Rangers, 5-2

Looking to earn a stripe against one of the Eastern Conference’s rising teams, the Bruins once again showed they just weren’t good enough when facing good competition.

The B’s could not protect a pair of one-goal leads before the New York Rangers overtook them in play and eventually the scoreboard, grabbing a 5-2 victory at the Garden on Friday afternoon with three unanswered third-period goals.

The Rangers took their first lead of the game at 11:35 of the third off a pretty tic-tac-toe rush play. After Jake DeBrusk was late on the forecheck, the Rangers broke out of their zone easily and went on the attack. Ryan Strome made a cross-ice feed to Julien Gauthier on the right wing. Gauthier’s centering feed got through Derek Forbort and then Artemi Panarin beat Brandon Carlo to the front of the net for the chip-in and a 3-2 New York lead. The Rangers never looked back.

“We didn’t play winning hockey, for whatever reason. There was a breakdown on the structure all over the ice,” said coach Bruce Cassidy on what turned out to be the game-winner. “Usually when there’s a structure issue, we look at ourselves. Why aren’t we getting the message across? But we’ve got five guys on the ice who have been in the league a long time. I think the onus has to be shared there as well. They have to know their routes on the forecheck they’re defending. And I think that turns the game. … We just had a poor forecheck where they came right through our three forwards (Tomas Nosek and Craig Smith along with DeBrusk) and then our D, I’m not sure they defended as well as they could, even though there was an odd-man rush. That becomes a turning point. Now you’re chasing the game in a game I felt was back and forth for the most part. We had the edge in the first, they did in the second, now you’ve got yourself a good hockey game. We kind of pissed it away, to be honest with you.”

The B’s had a couple of chances to even it up. Patrice Bergeron hit the side of the net on a backhander and Igor Shesterkin made a terrific blocker save on Charlie Coyle off a one-timer from the slot. But with the B’s pushing for the equalizer, Alexis LaFreniere finished off a 2-on-1 with Gauthier with 3:38 left in the third to just about seal it. Jacob Trouba finished it off with an empty-netter.

The Bruins are now 10-7 — not great, but not the worst record in the world. But when you consider how they’re getting their wins and where the losses are piling up, it’s hard not to think the team is backsliding toward an abyss of mediocrity they’ve managed to avoid longer than some would have thought five years ago. While they’ve been feasting on bottom feeders like the Buffalos, Ottawas and Montreals, they’re consistently coming up short against top teams in their respective divisions like Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton, Carolina and now the Rangers.

Brad Marchand said he’s not concerned with that trend and kept a positive outlook, but that this is a much different year than one we’ve seen here in a long while.

“It’s early in the year. We have a lot of new faces in our group. It’s a different year for us, a lot different than we’ve had in a long time,” said Marchand. “We have to build something again, whereas before, we had such little turnover, whoever came in just fit into the group. But everything was already established. Now, with the amount of new guys that we have, it’s hard coming to a new team and learning new systems and building that chemistry, and that’s what we have to do. We have to build our chemistry with our goalie, the forwards have to build chemistry with their line and then again with the defensemen breaking out plays. There’s a lot of stuff we need to work on. I don’t think we expected to come in and dominate from the start of the year. We knew it was going to be a process to get our game where it needs to be. But we’re not concerned about Game 17. We want to be playing our best down the stretch and that’s what we want to build for. It’s like building a house. You have to build the foundation first.”

The first period was a typically frustrating one for the Bruins. They dominated on the shot clock, 17-5, took a 1-0 lead and had chances to extend it but could not. And with just under 6 seconds left in the period, the Rangers took advantage of icing-induced fatigue to even the game going into the first break.

After killing off the first penalty of the game, the B’s drew consecutive infractions on the Rangers with a 10-second overlap. They peppered Shesterkin on the near four-minute power play and he was up for the challenge. But just when it looked like the Blueshirts had escaped without any damage, Craig Smith stole the puck from Trouba and, from the slot, he patiently picked his spot over Shesterkin’s blocker and buried it at 14:56, a second after Adam Fox got out of the box.

The B’s had a great chance to go up 2-0 when Taylor Hall exploded on a partial break, but Shesterkin made a strong pad save to keep the Rangers deficit at a goal.

But the B’s could not get out of the period without getting nicked.

The fourth line and third pairing got hemmed in their own zone after Anton Blidh’s chip-out made it all the way down for icing and the Rangers were able to get their big guns on the ice. After failing to clear the puck a couple of times, Panarin made a pretty dish to Strome, who beat Jeremy Swayman with the equalizer from the middle of the ice as the clock showed 5.8 seconds to go in the period.

The Rangers were the dominant team in the second, though the B’s took the lead again on Bergeron’s goal off a pretty Marchand-to-Matt Grzelcyk-to-Bergeron play, only to see it answered yet again on a rebound goal from Dryden Hunt, the second time the B’s fourth line of center Erik Haula, Blidh and Curtis Lazar were on the ice for a goal against.

“We were OK. It’s 2-2 heading into the third,” said Cassidy. “But the third and fourth (Ranger) goals, yeah, they finished, but those breakdowns were on us.”

And against good teams, they are happening more often this year.