Kalman: Bruins' Loss To Oilers Still A Positive Sign of Growth

BOSTON (CBS) - The Bruins had a coming-of-age game Monday despite a dissatisfying result.

So much of this season has been about gaining experience for a roster with several new players and several young players. The Bruins lost 3-2 to the Edmonton Oilers in overtime at TD Garden, but they had nothing to be ashamed of.

The Oilers scored their two regulation goals in 5:29 span of the first period. But the Bruins didn't relent. Oilers goaltender Cam Talbot, back between the pipes after seven games on the bench, didn't let up a goal until the Bruins' had landed more than 20 shots, but the Bruins kept firing.

By the end of the night the Bruins had tested Talbot 49 times and solved him just twice. Still they earned a point in the standings that will come in handy come spring, and they proved they have some gumption that might not have been present mere weeks ago.

"Definitely. I think that's definitely an improvement," said center Patrice Bergeron, who had the secondary assist on Brad Marchand's game-tying goal with 4:38 remaining in the third period. "After those two quick goals, earlier in the year I think we probably would've caved in and we definitely stayed with it. It was a bad eight nine minutes in that first, but we stayed calm, we stayed with it and got back in the second and third and played a real good game."

Cynics will scoff at the notion that a loss to the Oilers could be translated into a positive. The Oilers, after all, are supposed to be scraping the bottom of the NHL standings all season and they haven't been in the postseason since the George W. Bush administration. But they entered the Garden riding a five-game winning streak. They're overflowing with offensive talent that's being propelled by newfound confidence. The Oilers similarly defeated the Bruins 3-2 in a shootout earlier in the month.

The Bruins dominated the 8:28 before Jordan Eberle scored the Oilers first goal. And after Ryan Nugent-Hopkins gave the Oilers a 2-0 lead it was all Boston again. Ironically, the Bruins finally scored on a fluke goal by Matt Beleskey, who flipped the puck off Talbot's back. The goaltender then kicked the puck in for Beleskey's fourth goal of the season. Beleskey's been the epitome of hard luck this season, especially in the past several weeks. Then in a game where the Bruins didn't get more than two bounces, he was rewarded by one of the fortunate hops of the puck.

Much like Beleskey this season, though, the Bruins kept at it and kept trying to find a way to get the puck past Talbot.

"We had to fight back but their goaltender stood tall and we just kept going after them and found a way to get ourselves back into the game and get ourselves at least a point," coach Claude Julien said. "But there was no frustration throughout the whole game. Just determination."

In addition to the Bruins' developing confidence and heart, they're better able to diagnose their problems. When the season started out and they were uncompetitive, the Bruins were often left hanging their heads and responding to questions with generalities like "we have to play better." Now that they're playing more like a team with a chance to at least stay in the postseason race until the end, they're able to get specific.

In the case of why they didn't solve Talbot more often, they knew they weren't as tough in the trenches as they needed to be.

"We didn't do a really good job of getting in front of him," Marchand said. "There was a lot of pucks around the net, rebounds and such, and we just weren't there and battling in front to pick those up. So we have to do a much better job of that next game."

Over the course of a season teams suffer monumental losses and enjoy spectacular victories. The Bruins' loss to the Oilers could turn out to be an anomaly – a loss they look back at as a turning point in the right direction.

"I think we're starting to learn how to play in games like this and realize we can come back from a couple-goal deficit," Marchand said. "We seem to have a better calming presence on the bench and in the room. And guys are stepping up at the right times and speaking and saying what needs to be said and calming guys down. I think especially with how we started to play, we knew if we continued to get pucks in deep and work them over, we were going to get some goals. Luckily we did."

Unlike the Oilers, the Pittsburgh Penguins will come to Boston stumbling and bumbling. They just changed coaches. The Bruins actually have two games against the Penguins this week. The lessons of the loss to the Oilers will increase in value if the Bruins can exploit the Penguins and keep their upward trajectory in the NHL standings.

Matt Kalman covers the Bruins for CBSBoston.com and also contributes to NHL.com and several other media outlets. Follow him on Twitter @TheBruinsBlog.