Bruins-Penguins takeaways: Ice mismanagement results in latest slip-up

The goals came in bunches on Causeway St. Thursday night.

But the Boston Bruins played right into the Pittsburgh Penguins’ hands, embarking on a track meet during their first meeting of the season.

The defensive structure that the Bruins established during their four-game win streak went haywire. Between that and Jeremy Swayman being prone to relinquishing juicy rebounds, the Penguins crashed the net with ease, leading to multiple primary and secondary bids in high-danger areas.

Drew O’Conner notched Pittsburgh’s first-period equalizer on a rebound just 5:19 after Brad Marchand gave the Bruins their first (and only) lead of the night 19 seconds in. Ryan Graves fired a puck through traffic 1:13 later.

The wild opening frame continued with four-time All-Star David Pastrnak notching the equalizer just 22 seconds after Graves’ second tally. The Penguins quickly responded as Jake Guentzel notched the go-ahead marker off a brilliant feed from Sidney Crosby.

A Lars Eller one-timer and Jeff Carter crashing the net for a rebound shortly after Pittsburgh’s second-period power play attempt expired provided insurance. Yet, the Bruins worked their way back within striking distance against a shaky Penguins defensive core.

Morgan Geekie provided the Bruins some life, completing a brilliant sequence kicked off by Pastrnak and Charlie McAvoy.

Brandon Carlo pulled the Bruins within a goal on a one-timer from the point with 38.5 ticks remaining in the middle frame.

The Bruins carried over the momentum from Carlo’s tally into the third. Marchand notched Boston’s second equalizer of the night after turning Kris Letang inside out en route to his first shorthanded tally of the year.

Yet, just as they established another building block, the Bruins couldn’t complete the comeback.

Crosby put his team ahead for good with a power play tally at 11:19 of the third.

The Bruins generated several quality chances with Swayman on the bench for the extra attacker. Pittsburgh’s D came through with timely shot blocks in the final 2:30 and change to secure a wild 6-5 win.

Here’s what we learned as the Pens snapped Boston’s four-game win streak.

Montgomery lets Swayman ride it out.

Even when they encounter their defensive mishaps, the Bruins hardly transitioned from chaos to pure anarchy within their system. That trend ended on Thursday after relinquishing four first-period tallies.

The four goals allowed in the first period prompted some of the 17,850 in attendance to look toward the Boston crease to see whether Linus Ullmark would relieve Swayman. Jim Montgomery considered the switch after Pittsburgh’s fifth goal but allowed his third-year netminder to weather through the back-and-forth affair.

The Bruins made that move from Swayman to Ullmark during a late November matchup in Columbus. The change hardly sparked a lifeless Boston bunch as they dropped its third game in a row.

“I knew it was going to be one of those back-and-forth games. Yes, we did think about [it],” Montgomery admitted. “Probably in the second is when we did think about making the goalie change. Once before [in Columbus] I’ve made a switch, and I wanted to see our goalie fight through it [tonight]. Sometimes, you give them the opportunity to fight through it, and when it’s back and forth like that, I thought that was the opportunity to do it.”

Swayman couldn’t bail out his D against Crosby and company. The Bruins, however, tried to provide Swayman support through their comeback bid.

They nearly pulled it off, but another ill-timed defensive blunder forced the Bruins into playing from behind again late in the third.

“There’s a lot of opportunities going both ways,” Carlo said of the back-and-forth tilt. “I felt like when we got through the neutral zone, we were creating a lot in their zone, putting pucks on net…and vise versa. When they were making plays off the rush, they were high-danger plays, and we have to limit those and manage our game a little bit better and play better defensively for sure.”

Ice mismanagement leads to the latest set of slip-ups.

The Bruins took advantage of the space in front of the net offensively. If only they had that same approach to defending their own end of the ice.

The Penguins thrive on generating chances off the rush. The Bruins struggled to defend their zone entries and lost a significant handful of puck possession battles, relinquishing a season-high in high-danger scoring chances against (25).

The sequence leading to the game-winner particularly stood out to Montgomery. A late-arriving McAvoy was forced into a hooking penalty as Carter attempted to finish a bid off an odd-man rush. Crosby provided the dagger seconds later when his shot deflected off Hampus Lindholm and past Swayman.

“I don’t like the ice management, and I don’t like the odd-man rushes we gave up, whether it was on the power play or 5-on-5,” Montgomery said. “Giving up an odd-man rush caused us a penalty that allowed them to get the sixth goal.”

The Bruins didn’t panic on the offensive end. But they hardly looked confident creating transition against a desperate Penguins squad.

“We’re not making sound decisions. We’re forcing stuff when we don’t need to,” Montgomery added. “We’re getting plenty of offense; we didn’t have to force offense. Unfortunately, our game management I think cost us the game.”

On most nights, the Bruins may succumb to the mental lapses. On Thursday, they regrouped and made a game out of it.

Boston’s perseverance allowed them a chance to come back.

Perhaps the aura developed from this 60-minute affair prompted the two teams to trade scoring bids. But as the Bruins struggled to find their defensive rhythm, they never felt a win was out of reach.

Geekie provided the Bruins life with his seventh goal of the season. Carlo gave the Bruins momentum as they entered the second intermission.

In the third, the Bruins turned to their captain to notch their first shorthanded goal of the year on a highlight-reel equalizer. 

“As a coach, you have to love the way that your team never stops fighting,” Montgomery said. “And we never stopped fighting. We believed, even when it was 5-2 that we were going to come back to win, and we came back to tie it up 5-5. You want to have that kind of spirit in your team.”

The Bruins became more battle-tested over the first half of their Centennial season. Yet, some growing pains remain.

For a team hoping to install some of their high-end prospects, Thursday’s situation hardly presented an opportunity for growth. Four Bruins notched less than 10 minutes of ice time in the losing effort, including Mason Lohrei and the recently recalled Georgii Merkulov.

Instead of giving the kids a chance to perform in pivotal moments, Montgomery turned to his battle-tested core to spark the comeback bid. As a team, the miscues remained prevalent throughout the lineup and thwarted a resilient Bruins bunch from gaining at least one point.

“Some good, some bad. I liked our resiliency and the way we battled back even when we were down by a few. We competed all the way to the end,” Marchand said. “Even in the end we could’ve had a couple [chances], but obviously some plays we’ve got to clean up, and some plays we’ve got to be better at. We just made mistakes that we probably shouldn’t have that late in the game.”