Empty Thoughts: Bruins 3, Penguins 2 (OT)

Observations from the Penguins’ 3-2 overtime loss to the Bruins:

First things first, there was no update on Brian Dumoulin. He left the game after the second period due to an undisclosed injury.

In the final seconds of the middle frame, he took an awkward tumble while defending the area around the cage as the Bruins possessed the puck on a power-play chance. He sort of did a semi-split and just kind of laid on the ice. In fact, he appeared to be hit with a puck after he fell.

If he’s out for any length of time, that just adds to the Penguins’ troubles on the blue line as Mike Matheson, Marcus Pettersson, Juuso Riikola and Zach Trotman are already injured.

Considering Dumoulin’s ice time had ballooned to 23:30 entering this game due to the issues they already have on the left side with injured southpaw defensemen, the remaining able-bodied blueliners they have will have quite a challenge in filling that void.

Speaking of voids … that’s probably the best way to describe the Penguins’ futility in Boston after they lost their ninth consecutive game at TD Garden.

They’ve gone just over six years since winning in that venue.

How long ago is that?

That’s “Mike Johnston was still the coach” ago.

Their last victory in Boston was a 3-2 overtime win on Nov. 24, 2014. Forward Evgeni Malkin scored twice, including in overtime, in the triumph. Goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury made 27 saves for the Penguins.

What’s even more impressive about that win was the fact they pulled it off with a real cast of misfits.

Seriously, look at these lines and pairings:

Nick Spaling as a first liner is … wow.

Blake Comeau was actually decent in a second line role before he broke his wrist midway through the season.

Steve Downie was a sideshow.

That fourth line? Woof.

Christian Ehrhoff was a broken toy by that point in his career, having dealt with so many injuries.

And Rob Scuderi was clearly on the downside of his career.

Yet, more than a half-decade later, that motley crew remains the last Penguins team to claim a win in Boston.

What happened

A short-handed goal gave the Bruins the game’s first lead 7:41 into regulation. After Penguins forward Jared McCann fumbled the puck in the neutral zone, Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy claimed it inside his own blue line and one-touched a forehand pass up the right wing for forward Brad Marchand. Working his way up the wall, Marchand cut to the slot from the right circle, dodged passive resistance from Penguins defenseman Kris Letang and ripped a wrister over goaltender Tristan Jarry’s glove hand for his fourth goal of the season. McAvoy had the lone assist.

The Bruins took a 2-0 lead at 7:58 of the second during a five-on-three power-play sequence. Taking a pass low in the Penguins’ right circle, Marchand fed a pass between a kneeling Dumoulin and Jarry to the left of the crease. Bruins forward Nick Ritchie was able to tap in an easy forehand shot past Jarry’s right skate for his third goal. Marchand and McAvoy collected assists.

The Penguins finally got on the scoreboard at 9:47 of the third period. As a power-play chance expired, the Penguins maintained possession in the offensive zone and peppered Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask with shots. After Penguins forward Kasperi Kapanen was denied from the right of the cage by Rask’s blocker, Rask appeared to be laboring with some kind of discomfort and struggled to get to his skates. All the while, the rebound hit off Penguins forward Drew O’Connor’s right skate and slid to the left circle.

McCann chased it down, spun around and whipped a wrister that was blocked by Bruins forward Chris Wagner. That rebound then bounced to the right circle where Penguins forward Jason Zucker claimed it and immediately whipped a wrister over the glove hand of a somewhat prone Rask for his first goal of the season. After the goal, Rask skated to the right corner in discomfort and took a few moments to gather himself. He remained in the game despite whatever ailed him. Assists went to McCann and O’Connor.

The game was tied 2-2 at 16:44 of the third. Marchand tried to push the puck up the right wing but had it flicked away on a sharp poke check by Penguins defenseman John Marino. Zucker claimed the puck in the neutral zone and fed it to Malkin. Briefly controlling the play, Malkin tapped the puck to the right wing for an on-rushing Kapanen. Surging up the boards, Kapanen veered past McAvoy and attacked the net, tucking a backhander past Rask’s right skate for his first goal of the season. Malkin and Zucker collected assists.

In overtime, things were just bizarre.

First, after a turnover by Bruins defenseman Connor Clifton at the Penguins blue line, Malkin had a breakaway and hit the crossbar at 3:37 of the period.

Then, late in the extra frame, Penguins forward Bryan Rust slammed Marchand to the ice in the Penguins’ zone, causing a turnover. That led to a three-on-none sequence along with Malkin and Letang. As Rust peeled off for a line change, Malkin lugged the puck into the Bruins’ zone. Slowing down upon approach of the net, he fed a forehand pass to Letang, trailing slightly. Letang then one-touched it back to Malkin. From the right of the crease, Malkin tried to feed it back to Letang across the crease and Rask broke up the sequence with his stick at the 3:47 mark.

The Bruins generated their own two-on-none sequence and converted. As Marino lost a puck battle in front of his bench to McAvoy, Bruins forward Craig Smith claimed possession and hustled up the right wing. Gaining the offensive zone, he fed a pass to forward David Krejci in the left circle. Krejci then dished back to Smith who shuffled a forehand shot through Jarry’s five hole for his second goal and the victory. Krejci and McAvoy collected assists.

Statistically speaking

• The Bruins led the game in shots, 36-30.

• Smith led the game with seven shots.

• Rust led the Penguins with five shots.

• Letang led the game with 29:57 of ice time on 34 shifts.

• McAvoy led the Bruins with 27:33 of ice time on 34 shifts.

• The Bruins controlled faceoffs, 46-20 (70%)

• Bergeron was 17 for 23 (74%).

• Penguins forward Teddy Blueger was 6 for 14 (43%)

• Wagner led the game with three blocked shots.

• Marino led the Penguins with two blocked shots.

Randomly speaking

• The Penguins’ power play was a crater in this game, going 0 for 6. And it gave up a short-handed goal to open the scoring.

Things have been kind of clunky with a couple of power-play goals off strange hops, but the Penguins seem to have done some positive things with the man advantage in their first six games. But that came to a pretty abrupt halt on Tuesday. They only generated six shots on all those chances and all of two of those came from the first unit.

The second unit actually did a decent job by keeping things simple. That squad just put the puck on net and looked for rebounds. But the top group, with a handful of scoring champions, needed to offer more.

• Speaking of more, the Penguins got more from the second line, most notably, from Malkin in five-on-five sequences. He was far more engaged in this contest than his dreadful effort in Sunday’s contest against the New York Rangers. He had two shots on six attempts, had an assist and even drew a penalty by going to the net. It was a pretty significant step forward for Malkin.

• Kapanen continues to look better and better as he gets more and more comfortable with his new team. His ability to create things off a zone entry really stands out.

• Things got jumbled after Dumoulin’s departure, but the pairing of Marino and Cody Ceci was much better after that wretched game on Sunday.

• Journeyman Kevin Czuczman will presumably be next in line for any playing time should Dumoulin be sidelined. Management really thinks highly of him with how he has helped prospects in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in terms of learning about the life of being a professional hockey player. He’s as much of a coach as he is a player at that level.

But he’s probably a much better story than he is player. There’s a reason he has not played any NHL games since the 2013-14 season.

• O’Connor looked pretty good for playing a limited role his in first NHL game. He was restricted to the fourth line in five-on-five sequences and seemed to keep up with the speed of the game pretty well. And with the second power-play group, he kept things basic by going to the front of the cage. He won’t make anyone forget Patric Hornqvist or Kevin Stevens, but he seemed to make it difficult for Rask to look for shooting lanes.

Logging 10:51 of ice time on 13 shifts, O’Connor did not record a shot attempt and was 1 for 1 on faceoffs.

• Penguins forward Mark Jankowski actually did a pretty good job for most of that three-on-five. But with the benches on the far end of the ice during the second period, he was unable to get off the ice and kind of ran out of gas.

• Jarry was pretty sharp for the third consecutive game. Even if it was a loss, this might have been his best contest of the season.

• At some point, the Penguins need to get a lead and keep it. Playing with a deficit for most of the game just wears you out, especially when you’re playing without a full complement of players.

• The Bruins didn’t escape this game unscathed. Forward Jake DeBrusk, who opened the game on the top line, left at 16:55 of the first period due to an undisclosed injury.

Historically speaking

• Kapanen became the 536th player to score a regular season goal for the Penguins.

• Ceci appeared in his 500th career game.

• O’Connor recorded his first career point.

• O’Connor became the 23rd player to wear No. 10 for the Penguins. His predecessors:

Earl Ingarfield, George Swarbrick, Keith McCreary, Robin Burns, Ted Snell, Pierre Larouche, Peter Lee, Gary Rissling, Bob Errey, Wayne Babych, Ron Duguay, Dan Quinn, Barry Pederson, Ron Francis, Ville Nieminen, John LeClair, Gary Roberts, Mark Letestu, Tanner Glass, Brenden Morrow, Christian Ehrhoff, Garrett Wilson

• The Penguins’ last overtime loss to the Bruins was a 2-1 road defeat on Nov. 23, 2018. Forward Joakim Nordstrom scored in overtime on Jarry.

Publicly speaking

• Sullivan on the Zucker-Malkin-Kapanen line gaining traction:

“I thought (Malkin) got better as the game went one. He got more and more confident. With (Kapanen’s) speed on that line, I think it really helps. Obviously, they score that goal with (Kapanen’s) wide speed. (Malkin) makes a nice play to him. I just felt like (Malkin) got more and more confident as the game went on. He had the puck an awful lot tonight and that’s usually a good indication that (Malkin’s) line is coming.”

• Zucker on his line:

“(Kapanen) was great. (Malkin) was great. Our emphasis today going into the game was shooting pucks, trying to get to the net. I think we, myself especially, have been a little bit too fancy the last few games, trying to make the perfect play. Arguably, there were a couple of terrible shots tonight but, honestly, the (idea) was to get some shots on net, get some (offensive) zone time. We were able to get a few offensive zone shifts that were good for us to try to get a little bit of momentum.”

• Zucker critiqued his own play before this game:

“It’s always nice to score but for me, I think it was a lot more than getting chances the past games. I don’t think I was playing the right way. I don’t think I was playing a good game. I wasn’t really skating and playing the way I can. I was happy just to be out there and skating, trying to make some plays, holding onto pucks. And obviously, the goal is always great. I’m happy for that but we didn’t get the win so that’s the ultimate disappointment there.”

• Kapanen on his goal:

“(Zucker) and (Malkin) did a good job on the boards there. (Malkin) kind of gave it to me with (speed) I was just trying to take it the net. I feel like I got hooked a bit, so I think that kind of threw Rask off a bit. It just went underneath his pad. I’m not complaining. I’ll take it.”

• Kapanen talked about his progression with the Penguins through four games:

“The coaching staff has done a good job, minutes-wise. It was smart for me not to get too many in the first couple of games. Coming into Game 4 now, I feel like I’m getting my legs underneath me a bit. It’s getting there.”

• Sullivan on his team’s power play:

“I didn’t think we executed as well as we have been in prior games tonight. You’ve got to give Boston credit, they’ve got a very good penalty kill. But I didn’t think we were at our best for whatever reason. We didn’t execute as good as our guys have been to this point.”

• Zucker on his team’s power play:

“(The Bruins are) a stingy (penalty kill). They’re a heck of a team, obviously. They pressure hard. They’ve got some really skilled guys that pressure the puck quite a bit. They’ve got some big (defensemen) with a lot of reach. So it’s tough to make plays. We’ll get back to work on it tomorrow and try to be a little bit better next game.”

• Sullivan on his team’s futility on that three-on-none sequence in overtime:

“I don’t tell them anything. I’m not sure what I can say can help them moving forward. I think they understand the circumstance. These guys are world-class players.”

• Sullivan on his remaining healthy defensemen:

“They’re all competing. It’s tough when you go down that many players at the same position. It’s a test of your depth. The guys are stepping up. We’re asking guys to play more significant minutes in more significant roles. These guys are competing. I give them a lot of credit. They’re playing hard back there.”

• Jarry offered an interesting answer on what he does differently when his team is playing with fewer than six defensemen:

“It’s definitely tough when you lose a defenseman, especially a good defenseman like (Dumoulin). It’s tough when we’re playing down. The role for me is just to cover the puck as much as I can and give them a break to make sure our (defensemen) stay as fresh as possible so we’re able to play the game that we want.”

• Kapanen on his team’s need to stage comebacks far too frequently:

“We’ve been trailing a lot of games now. It’s always a great quality for a team to have (the ability to) comeback in a game and at least get that one point. For us, we’ve just got to be ready right off the hop. That short-handed goal wasn’t our best in the beginning but after that, I feel like we competed as a team.”

• Sullivan on O’Connor:

“I thought he was great. He had a real strong game. He was good on our second power-play (unit). We used him a little bit on the penalty kill. He skates really well, he’s got a good stick, he’s got good hockey sense. I thought he had a real good first game.”

• Smith joked about Rask’s play on the three-on-none sequence:

“I thought (Rask) would be pretty excited to have three guys coming down on him. (Laughs.) But he made a great stop.”

• Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy gave a passive-aggressive response when asked about the Penguins getting six power-play opportunities:

“We had six minors. I don’t know. It seemed like every time they went down, we were in the box. I’d have to look at it closer. It’s not how we play typically. It was a little unusual for us to have to kill that many minor penalties. I don’t know if that’s the sort of veteran Pittsburgh effect on the officials or they were all good calls. Who knows?”

Visually speaking

• Game summary.

• Event summary.

• Highlights:

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