Pens Upended by Bruins in 2-1 Loss

Recap by Penguins Featured Contributor Patricia Beninato

If you were looking for excitement, the game between the Penguins and the Bruins at TD Garden didn’t have it.

If you were looking for a PengWIN, this game didn’t have it either.

The Bruins, who were teetering on the precipice of the postseason, fell into it courtesy of their 2-1 win.

This was Evgeni Malkin’s third game out of his four-game suspension, but a more pressing problem was Tristan Jarry’s absence. Per the team, Blue Steel is “week to week” with a lower-body injury that various outlets are reporting as a broken bone in his foot. As I noted during the live tweet, the more cynical among us might have thought, “hey, the Pens are solidly in the playoffs. So why risk our main goalie in meaningless games?” However, if you really want to dive into the cynicism pool, Jarry’s play hasn’t been precisely stellar as of late, so maybe a lengthy break for playoff recalibration purposes might help. /controversial take

Anyway, the talking heads were pointing out (frequently, one might say desperately) that Casey DeSmith had been playing reasonably well of late, so it’d be no big deal for him to mind the net against the Bruins. Those proclamations came back to bite them 49 seconds into the first period when Trent Frederic picked up a Craig Smith bounce off Casey and made it one-zip Bruins with a flick of his wrist. A mere 1:14 later, Erik Haula caught the puck off Marcus Petterson in the faceoff circle and turned the deflect into offense. It didn’t help that the Bruins were hanging out in the Pens’ zone most of the period, and it’s only because the Bruins don’t have David Pastrnak that the score wasn’t higher.

In truth, though, this was a pretty sluggish game for the most part. The lone Penguins scorer was Damon Heinen, who lit the lamp in his third consecutive game at 5:38 in the second, threading Teddy Blueger’s drop pass through a bunch of people to cut the Bruins’ lead in half. 

That was it for offensive output for both teams. The Penguins’ penalty kill was good, but their three power-play chances were for naught. I really can’t point (give?) the finger at anyone in particular for not being on their game. After the one-two Bruins punch in the first three minutes, DeSmith was fine. No one drew stupider penalties than usual. It’s the end of the season, guys are tired, and the playoffs are on the horizon.

Just don’t be surprised if you don’t see Jarry until then.