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At the Garden: No place for negativity
BOSTON — Saturday's game at TD Garden was missing hockey's brightest light, as the Pittsburgh Penguins were without captain Sidney Crosby due to a concussion.
So what happens? The Bruins became the last NHL team to give up 100 goals this season in a 3-2 regulation loss to the 2009 Stanley Cup champs.
No one on the Bruins beat up Matt Cooke, something the fans still salivate for against the guilty party in [link widoczny dla zalogowanych]'s March 2010 concussion. Bruins defenseman Johnny Boychuk even tried to engage him, but no dice.
Cooke made an impact on the game by assisting on two of Pittsburgh's three goals, including a pretty backhand pass to Jordan Staal for the game winner in the third period.
"I accept that role and that position and it is what it is," said Cooke. "Like I said, I'm good with that and I have to play a certain way to be effective in the league."
Later in the period, [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] threw the sellout crowd of 17.565 a scare when he laid face-down on the ice after getting rubbed out by Penguins defenseman Derek Engelland.
On his first shift of the second period, Boston rookie Steven Kampfer got his nose broken by teammate Zdeno Chara's hockey stick. Penguins center Pascal Dupuis took a double minor on the play, but the Bruins power play failed to strike. Boston went 0-for-8 with the man advantage.
The first goal of the game went off Chris Kunitz's right skate. It was intentional maneuvering on Kunitz's part, but the call stood — goal Pittsburgh.
Saturday's game had so much to dislike and yet the Bruins had nothing negative to say afterward, not even a coach who's been feeling some heat in his fourth season on the job.
"When you lose a game, you're going to look for reasons," said Claude Julien afterward. "I thought Savvy's line tonight, I think they had about 17 shots, and they created a lot of chances."
Michael Ryder (goal) had seven shots on net; Nathan Horton had six and [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] had four.
All the Bruins seemed to want to talk about after the game were the positives that could be taken from the loss: a 46-shot attack on the Penguins net and some sturdy defense from a depleted blue line.
"We were right in there, it's just they got that third one — it's a really lucky bounce for them. That's going to happen from time to time," said Chara. "I thought we played a really good game, it's just a close one. It's a battle and unfortunately only one team can come out of it a winner. Too bad it wasn't us, but we feel that our game is, right now, pretty good, and we've just got to keep it going."
The Bruins defense stood tall despite a rough night for Kampfer, who was minus-2 when he got clipped. He made a nice play to keep the puck in the Penguins zone in the first period, but the shot he flung at the net was knocked down by Staal and put into transition immediately.
The moments in which the rookie defenseman's play has hurt the Bruins more than helped have been much less frequent than one should expect, given the position, his lack of NHL experience, his ambitious style of play and the ramifications of his mistakes.
"He's been playing really well, he's been really solid for us," said Chara. "Obviously, for the young guys playing, the game, the way he's playing, it's a big impact. Hopefully he'll be OK."
Finally, the acid test of post-game optimism: David Krejci has gone missing. After a two-assist game Tuesday against Ottawa and another assist Thursday against Philadelphia, Krejci disappeared on Saturday afternoon. That doesn't sound like a big deal until you notice that he had gone pointless in eight of the prior 10 games.
Last summer when the Bruins were exploring the trade market for [link widoczny dla zalogowanych], Krejci was the heir apparent to top-line center. And given [link widoczny dla zalogowanych]'s slow go getting back to form, this was supposed to be Krejci's year and Krejci's team.
Early in the third period, Julien shortened his bench, limiting Krejci's and his linemates' ice time. Krejci skated 3:18, Blake Wheeler 3:02 and Tyler Seguin 3:23. On the Bruins those are fourth-line minutes.
If there's a black cloud hanging over this hockey team, Krejci's lack of jump is it.
"Well I think that's the biggest thing we've talked to David about is if he can get his feet moving the rest of his game is certainly going to follow," said Julien. "And he's shown some of those spurts at times and he seems to be inconsistent, I guess, right now.
"And it's not from lack of trying, I think in his mind he really wants to do well and sometimes players have to grind it out and find ways to get their game again."
This negativity thing is a lost cause.
The Boston Bruins are not going to fire Julien, they're not going to rip the "C" off Chara's sweater, and they're not going to throw Krejci under the bus.
They may not be on Boston's fastest track to a championship,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], but the banged-up Bruins are 24-13-7, in first place and, for the most part, happy with how they're playing.
And what's wrong with that? [link widoczny dla zalogowanych]
Mick Colageo covers hockey for The Standard-Times. Contact him at [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] and visit [link widoczny dla zalogowanych]