Empty Thoughts: Bruins 4, Penguins 1

Observations from the Penguins’ 4-1 loss to the Bruins:

This game isn’t difficult to dissect. The Bruins were motivated after a bad loss in their previous game and beat the Penguins, who coming off a lopsided win, by just outskating them and initiating things physically.

To be clear, the Bruins didn’t bludgeon the Penguins into submission. It was more a matter of flustering them into mistakes.

There were hits that were a second or two too late or scrums that carried on. The Penguins didn’t react well to those tactics and got out of their game.

In addition to that, the Bruins, who were coming off a poor 3-0 road loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday, simply outworked the Penguins.

“They were quicker to the second and third pucks and battles,” Penguins forward Patric Hornqvist said. “That’s why the won the game. We didn’t play good enough to beat a good team. You have to give them credit. They were hard to play against. They were in our faces. We really couldn’t battle back. I don’t know why. But lucky it happened now and get it out of the way. Have a new game tomorrow. Clean up what we can and come back and win in Detroit.”

The Penguins players who spoke after the game had a pretty universal theme of not working hard enough. It seemed like they got a pretty direct edict from the coaching staff. You’ll probably see them offer a much more on-point effort against a less-than-stellar Detroit Red Wings team on Friday.

What happened

The Penguins opened the scoring all of 24 seconds into regulation. Pushing a puck out of his own zone, Penguins forward Dominik Simon pulled up in front of his bench and fed a cross-ice pass to forward Sidney Crosby driving up the left wing. From above the left dot, Crosby wound up and clapped a 1980’s-level slapper that beat a 1980s-level attempt at a glove save by goaltender Jaroslav Halak on the far side for his seventh goal of the season. Simon and defenseman Jack Johnson were credited with assists.

(Video courtesy NHL)

A little bit of luck got the Bruins on the scoreboard at 10:03 of the first period. Off a pass from Bruins rookie forward Karson Kuhlman, forward Sean Kuraly lobbed a seemingly innocent wrister off the left halfwall which glanced off of the right calf of Johnson and deflected past goaltender Tristan Jarry’s right shoulder on the near side. Kuhlman and defenseman Charlie McAvoy had assists.

(Video courtesy NHL)

Boston took its first lead at 12:16 of the first. After Bruins forward Danton Heinen harassed Penguins forward Teddy Blueger into a turnover in the Penguins’ right circle, Kuhlman ended up with the puck in the high slot. Identifying a passing lane, Kuhlman zipped a sharp forehand just inside the right circle where Bruins forward Par Lindholm deflected it with his backhand past Jarry’s glove on the near side. Kuhlman had the lone assist.

(Video courtesy NHL)

The Penguins had an opportunity to tie the score late in the second, but a two-on-none rush between forwards Bryan Rust and Zach Aston-Reese resulted in four shots and four spectacular saves by Halak, a longtime nemesis of the Penguins.

(Video courtesy NHL)

It became a 3-1 contest at only 3:19 into the third period. Claiming a puck on the Penguins’ left half wall, Bruins forward David Pastrnak spun off a check from Penguins defneseman John Marino and fed a pass to the left circle for forward Patrice Bergeron who gripped and ripped a wrister past Jarry’s glove on the near side. The only assist went to Pastrnak.

(Video courtesy NHL)

An empty-net goal by Bruins forward Brad Marchand at 19:07 of the third capped the scoring. The only assist went to Pastrnak.

(Video courtesy NHL)

Statistically speaking

• Shots were even, 30-30.

• Penguins forward Jared McCann and Bruins forward Charlie Coyle each led the game with four shots.

• Penguins defenseman Kris Letang led the game with 27:50 of ice time on 31 shifts.

• Defenseman Brandon Carlo led the Bruins with 22:58 of ice time on 32 shifts.

• The Bruins controlled faceoffs, 31-27 (53 percent).

• Bergeron was 13 for 22 (59 percent).

• Blueger was 10 for 19 (53 percent).

• Johnson led the game with five blocked shots.

• Forward Joakim Nordstrom led the Bruins with three blocked shots.

Historically speaking

• Johnson recorded his 300th career point.

Randomly speaking

• Hornqvist recorded his second career fighting major - and second of the season - when he dropped the gloves with Bruins defenseman Torey Krug at 18:11 of the second period.

Approximately two minute earlier, they had mixed it up in a scrum and Krug wanted to finish things.

Hornqvist’s first fight came with Devils defenseman Damon Severson on Nov. 22. Somewhat amusingly, he said he did not consider that to be a real fight.

• The Penguins were 0 for 3 on the power play and never looked like a threat with the man advantage. They were 4 for 4 on the penalty kill against the Bruins’ power play which entered the game ranked third in the NHL.

Publicly speaking

• Crosby on the game:

“There was certain points where I think we got outplayed. We definitely had some chances. We could have gotten back in the game. Overall, you look at the power play and I think zone time in general, they probably controlled more. Our power play probably could have helped us get back in it. We just weren’t good enough tonight.”

• Penguins coach Mike Sullivan on the game:

“I just don’t think we had the jump we normally have. We didn’t have as many clean plays, we didn’t control territory like we’re capable. It starts with puck battles, you’ve got to win puck battles. You’ve got to have support around the puck when you’re in the puck battles. There’s a lot of details that go into it but we just weren’t good enough.”

• Crosby on the game getting physical:

“We’re going to see that a lot. That’s not the first team that’s going to try to be physical. We had times where we were able to get some good hits in too. That’s hockey. Just (make) sure that we play the same way and finish our hits when we get the chance. We don’t need to change anything if that’s the case.”

• Sullivan was happy with how physical his team was:

“We were plenty physical. We had opportunities to get involved physically with body checks and I thought we did. You can define physicality different ways. You can define toughness different ways. For me, the biggest thing is getting your nose over pucks and winning puck battles. That’s when I know we’re at our best, when our compete level is high and we’re winning the puck battles all over the rink. We just didn’t win enough tonight.”

• Aston-Reese on the physical nature of the game:

“We can’t shy away from it. Off the start, we’ve got to be physical. We’ve got guys that are capable of it. Myself. My whole line is capable of playing physical. We’ve got some physical (defensemen). Just being able to respond. (Hornqvist) drop the gloves tonight. Maybe it’s a matter of someone dropping the gloves early on and kind of settling the game.”

• Aston-Reese on the Penguins’ play overall:

“We did not manage the puck well. That’s something we talked about going into the game and we didn’t stick to our game plan. There was a few times where we had turnovers at their blue line and they kind of shut the door.”

• Hornqvist on the team’s play:

“If we play like we did tonight, we’re not going to win many hockey games. It doesn’t matter who we play against. We have to be more hungry. … If we play hard enough and for each other, then we give ourselves a chance to win every game.

• Aston-Reese on the two-on-none sequence between himself and Rust which Halak snuffed out:

“It’s a good save. (Rust) made the right play. Usually, goalies will start cheating. It looked like he was about to start cheating over. If he slid the puck over, (Bruins defenseman Charlie) McAvoy would have gotten his stick on it anyways.”

• Hornqvist on the fight:

“It was a hard game. We both were a little frustrated. That happens in hockey. That’s hockey.”

• Sullivan felt the number of power plays for each team had an impact on the game:

“It was hard. We couldn’t get guys on ice. When there was that much special teams in the first half of the game, we couldn’t really establish any sort of flow. That’s just the way the game went at the beginning of the game.”

• Bruins forward Chris Wagner, who was particularly agitating to the Penguins throughout the game, explained his team’s approach pretty well:

“We probably felt a little heat to play hard. And they’re a skilled team. So you want to make it hard for them to get out of their zone and try to get under their skin as much as possible. We did a pretty good job of that.”

Visually speaking

-Game summary.

-Event summary.

-Highlights:

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