The Boston Bruins gained’t keep in mind their inaugural journey to face the Utah Hockey Membership fondly.
The Bruins coughed up a one-goal lead within the third interval after which watched as Michael Kesselring sniped a shot previous Jeremy Swayman to raise Utah to a 2-1 additional time win on the Delta Middle on Saturday evening.
The Bruins have been complicit in defeat as turnovers have been by far their greatest problem — and a recurring theme of their three losses this season. Boston registered a season-high 22 giveaways, permitting Utah to steal a win away from the Bruins.
“We by no means felt like we have been in charge of the sport,” Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery informed NESN’s Andy Brickley, as seen on the community’s postgame protection. “We have been turning the puck over an excessive amount of and our puck help, actually up till about 5 minutes earlier than we gave up the tying aim was truly the very best that we’ve performed with puck help and puck possession.”
Morgan Geeke, who returned to the lineup after being a wholesome scratch in opposition to the Colorado Avalanche, notched a team-high 4 turnovers. David Pastnrak, Matthew Poitras and Mason Lohrei weren’t far behind with three giveaways every.
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The Bruins actually wanted higher puck possession, particularly in opposition to a talented workforce like Utah. Turning the puck over fueled Utah because the Bruins tried to play catch as much as their opponent’s high-end velocity.
“It’s actually about smarter puck play,” Bruins captain Marchand informed reporters, as seen on NESN postgame protection. “We turned a number of pucks over on the blue strains or within the impartial zone they usually reloaded and type of got here at us with velocity. I feel if we made stronger performs up the wall and put it in deep and performed behind them, made their talent guys play down low, it type of limits that a bit of bit. However we didn’t do a ok job with that.”
The excellent news is the Bruins can use the loss in opposition to Utah as a studying expertise and put it to good use once they face sooner groups sooner or later. It was a tricky lesson to study and prevented Boston from securing two factors, however the Bruins aren’t going to dwell on it.
“We’ll look over some movie (Sunday). We already moved on,” Swayman informed reporters, as seen on NESN postgame protection. “We take the positives and transfer on. That’s what’s so particular about our group. So, onto the subsequent.”
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Listed here are extra notes from Saturday’s Bruins-Utah Hockey Membership sport:
— How many individuals would have had Cole Koepke as Boston’s second-leading aim scorer by means of six video games? Most likely nobody. The Bruins newcomer notched his third aim of the season within the second interval when he beat Connor Ingram by means of the five-hole. Koepke scored only one aim in 26 video games with the Tampa Bay Lightning over the past two seasons.
“Me and (Marchand acquired) a bit of little bit of a break and he type of beat out one among their guys and acquired like a primary contact to me,” Koepke informed reporters of his aim, as seen on NESN postgame protection. “Simply went into one-on-one. I knew Marchy was approaching on his down stick aspect, so I simply tried to get his far aspect and both have it go in prefer it did or hopefully a rebound would come out his aspect.”
— Nikita Zadorov is filling up the stat sheet, however not in the best way the Bruins hoped. The 6-foot-6, 248-pound defenseman dedicated one other penalty in opposition to Utah, giving him no less than one penalty in every of Boston’s first six video games. Zadorov did compile a team-high 4 hits within the loss.
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— Swayman did practically all the pieces he may to steer the Bruins to a win. He got here by means of with 30 saves, together with a number of highlight-reel stops, and his effort didn’t go unnoticed by Montgomery.
“Jeremy Swayman was our greatest participant tonight,” Montgomery informed Brickley. “I believed he was very sharp, I believed he was studying performs and he gave us a possibility to attempt to win in additional time.”
— The Bruins shut out their three-game highway journey Tuesday in opposition to the Nashville Predators. Puck drop from Bridgestone Area is scheduled for 8:45 p.m. ET, and you’ll watch the sport, plus an hour of pregame protection, on NESN.
