Bruins vs. Avalanche 1/27/22 RECAP: The Avs climb back into game using third period, then Cale Makar puts the bullet into a 4-3 OT loss for the Bruins

First Period:

To think this game started so dull...ish.

Things started kind of a lightly boneheaded play by Taylor Hall clipping Nathan MacKinnon with his own stick, which would require him to leave the game early. Undeterred, the Avs made the Bruins work for much of the pucks in this game, even when they were rolling, the Avs were right with them.

Also Landeskog tried his best to get Taylor Hall to fight him and Hall didn’t take him up on it, leading to all sorts of charming language that definitely wouldn’t make it past a Coral filter being used online to describe him. You’d think legal weed would make Avs less aggro, but I digress.

Anyway, Colorado opened the scoring with Kurtis MacDermid getting a rocket shot off which sank low under Ullmark’s pad. 1-0 Avs.

Things did not necessarily calm down from there, but we have a 2nd period to get through.

Second Period, or the absolute agony of false hope:

Things got started on a matching minor which led to 4-on-4, and Charlie McAvoy made a heads up play that Jake DeBrusk started...

...and then finished. 1-1 Everybody.

Then! On yet another power play, this time 5-on-3 because the Avs got very crispy during the 2nd, Charlie Coyle popped a rebound in from a Charlie McAvoy shot and put the B’s up 2-1!

Finally, Brad Marchand would finish the scoring for the period in the waning seconds of the previous power play, giving the B’s a commanding 3-1 lead off of a simple pass from Pastrnak!

So surely the Boston Bruins would take this lead into the 3rd in order to solidify it, make sure the team didn’t completely collapse in on itself and give up the lead, right?

Third period, where the Bruins completely collapse in on themselves and give up the lead.

It’s all about the details, man.

The Avs began hammering Ullmark with every shot they could muster, and for his part he held the fort...

...Until Sam Girard got a greasy one. 3-2.

And then...well...If he wasn’t going to get Boston by fighting Hall...

...Then he’d get ‘em in other ways. 3-3 Everybody.

Overtime:

Look just play the clip. Cale Makar’s a damn cheat code.

4-3 B’s lose.

Game Notes:

• Your TOI leader was McAvoy with 27:25 logged, 19:49 of that even-strength.
• This is one of the measuring stick games of the season; and the B’s got to see what it would look like against a tough opponent who could likely be in for a long playoff race, and man didn’t you get a good look. It’s not necessarily that they’re good all the time, or even good enough to comfortably lead. It’s the details sure, but it’s also the effort of a 60 minute hockey game; you play until the horn sounds. The Avalanche, even with their kind of slow start and bad 2nd period played to the very last whistle and then some even after losing one of their best players early in Nathan MacKinnon. Aside from some 2nd period excellence from the depth, the fact is Boston got their heads caved in at evens, especially in the final few minutes of the third, and ultimately walked away with just a point when they could’ve had two. Just a great effort by a good goaltender and some players who’ve both been popping off at the right time and also who’ve desperately needed those goals wasted. Cassidy and every Bruin they stuck a mic in front of spoke about it after the game; they weren’t happy with how the B’s played that third period, and it burned them. Can’t say I disagree.
• Speaking of goaltender...man...I feel so bad for Linus Ullmark. He was playing some of the very best hockey he’s been since putting on the Black and Gold and got jobbed out by his own team playing like AHLers in front of him. That .902 doesn’t tell the story; he kept them in that game for as long as his body physically could allow.
• Brandon Carlo’s game is quickly becoming...a troubling talking point. His ability to make decisions with the puck and any previous ability to move smoothly with it appears to be diminishing, and there isn’t really an easy answer for that. What do you do if your 2nd RD is slumping like he is?
• Jake DeBrusk has more goals this year than Craig Smith. Hockey’s weird. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
• Hot take: Taylor Hall was absolutely had the right, and was in the right to just ignore Gabriel Landeskog and keep on playing like he did instead of fight him. Did he throw a bad hit on MacKinnon? Yeah, I’d say there was reason for Hall to spend 5 minutes in the box for it. And guess what? He did. But the absolutely rank taeks spitting around the hockeysphere regarding whether or not he “should’ve” fight are just asinine. Bad shit happens, penalties are assessed, you got your two points, and until George Parros and company are assed enough to actually do their jobs and properly punish the kinds of hits Hall threw, it is your job to move on. MacKinnon will likely return and keep helping that team drop 4 goals on whatever hapless western team they run into next.
• Besides, he goes to the box, do you really want Erik Haula, who got crushed at even strength tonight, to have to do more?
• No use crying now, as the B’s have a game that should be theirs on Friday with the Coyotes. That game drops the puck at 9pm EST.

We’ll see you there.