Plus/Minus: Inability To Bury Scoring Chances Dooms Bruins vs. Canucks
BOSTON (CBS) - The Bruins left the weekend with a big win on the road over the Chicago Blackhawks, and any hopes of building off that momentum were dashed Tuesday night at TD Garden by the Vancouver Canucks.
Vancouver goalie Eddie Lack stopped 40 shots and held the Bruins to just one goal as the Canucks left Boston with a 2-1 win. The B's have now dropped seven of their last eight games, and eight of their last 10 overall.
To help break down the loss, 98.5 The Sports Hub's Adam Jones welcomed in Dave Goucher and Bob Beers of the Bruins Radio Network for a game recap.
The offense was not the issue, but the lack of finish really hurt Boston's chances Tuesday night.
"It cost them big time in this game, their inability to bury their chances. Outside of [Daniel] Paille in the first period -- that was about it. Chances were there all night long. Loose pucks were there all night long. [Canucks goalie] Eddie Lack let rebounds out most of the night," said Goucher.
"Scrambles around the net, even late in the game when the Bruins had the extra attacker on, [Bruins head coach] Claude Julien felt like they dominated most of this game tonight. But it turned out to be a loss."
Scoreboard-watching is something Bruins fans have done all season long, and will continue to do until game no. 82. Florida trailed Chicago 2-0 entering the third period late Tuesday night, but rallied back to force overtime, where they eventually lost in a shootout. The Panthers, mere points behind the Bruins, earned the point in the overtime loss and don't appear to be going away anytime soon.
Meanwhile Philadelphia, who's on a bit of a hot streak, lost in regulation to Carolina and remain four points behind Boston.
If Boston does plan on improving their team, they have limited time to do so. The NHL trade deadline is Monday March 2 at 3pm ET, and with David Krejci out indefinitely and Kevan Miller sidelined for the remainder of the season, Boston has even more glaring needs than they did a week ago.
"I'm still hoping that they add something," Bob Beers told Adam Jones. "I'm still hoping that they add a winger, then David Krejci comes back and they end up uniting that [first] line with Milan Lucic, or at least some semblance of that. It doesn't have to be that way, but they've been actively and openly looking for something like that as an upgrade.
"In an ideal world you'll need some depth on the defense as well to help out. Do you have the confidence in [backup goalie] Niklas Svedberg moving forward? That's a question you'll have to answer as well. There are salary cap implications, but if you're asking me in a perfect world those are the three positions -- in order -- I think that they need help right now."
Later in the show, Adam Jones goes over his positives and negatives from the game in a segment called Plus/Minus.
Listen below!