Kalman: Bruins Should Still Have Enough Star Power To Overcome Injury Bug
BOSTON (CBS) -- It'd be easy to chalk up the Bruins' 2-0 loss to the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday to just another night at the office against the hated Habs.
The Canadiens have now won five straight in the regular season at TD Garden and nine of the past 10 overall. And of course there was that little matter of a best-of-seven series in the Eastern Conference second round last spring that went the Canadiens' way.
Nonetheless, goaltender Tuukka Rask doesn't think the Canadiens have cast a spell on the Bruins. And he used the Bruins' effort against Montreal in the 2-0 defeat as proof.
"I don't think so. I think guys are – we recognize when we play good and when we don't play good, and tonight we played a good game and could have easily got a point or two," said Rask, who made 21 saves but still fell to 3-12-3 career in the regular season against Montreal. "But then again, sometimes we just don't play good at all against them and then it's kind of psychological. But we just feel like we have to play good against them and eliminate their odd-man rushes and stuff like we did today for the most part and it's going to be good. So I feel like there's no worry in the locker room why we couldn't beat them."
The Bruins put forth an effort worthy of at least getting one point in the standings. But they didn't get enough traffic in front of Montreal goaltender Carey Price, who earned his first regular-season shutout against Boston with 33 saves, and didn't win enough battle all over the rink.
Coach Claude Julien talked about needing to play a perfect game with the banged-up Bruins dressing an under-experienced lineup. There were four rookies (Matt Fraser, Seth Griffith, Matt Lindblad and Alexander Khokhlachev) up front and one (Joe Morrow) on the back end. One night after Khokhlachev had to go in as a game-day replacement for center David Krejci in Columbus, Lindblad was forced into action to replace Chris Kelly. Brad Marchand remained out as well.
The Bruins weren't trying too hard after the loss to throw out excuses. And well they shouldn't. The injuries and the emergency call-ups are unfortunate. However, they should not be used as a reason for the Bruins to cry in their beer. There should be enough talent, enough veterans, for the Bruins to win big games against archrivals even with the laundry list of injured veterans growing every day.
Patrice Bergeron had a three-game point streak snapped against the Canadiens, but he also had his second straight sub-.500 faceoff night. Bergeron spent four minutes in the penalty box against Montreal. Carl Soderberg has one point in his past six games. Loui Eriksson has two points in his past seven. Milan Lucic has one point in his past seven. It's worth noting that none of these players' points were goals.
"Well I think we do it to ourselves," defenseman Torey Krug said about the mishaps against Montreal. "I mean they're obviously a great hockey club and they play with a lot of speed and a lot of energy. So if we just focus on ourselves and play our solid game and take away their chances and time with the puck, then we should have success. But they're a good hockey team."
The elite players on the Bruins have to find a way to make life easier on the lesser and younger players in their midst. There's just so much hustling Gregory Campbell and Lindblad can do. There's no way the Bruins can count on getting goals from Fraser or Griffith. Anything from those players should be icing on the cake. The highest-paid, longest-tenured Bruins have to bear down and make sure the rash of injuries doesn't bury them.
This loss to the Canadiens was different than most that came before. But it was the same as some of the recent losses against other opponents. Regardless of the opponent, it's about time some of Boston's best played like they deserve that title.
Matt Kalman covers the Bruins for CBSBoston.com and also contributes to NHL.com and several other media outlets. Follow him on Twitter @TheBruinsBlog.
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