Bruins Notes: Brad Marchand Details ‘Deflating’ Loss To Kraken
Coming off their worst loss of the season, the Boston Bruins did themselves absolutely no favors at the start of their matchup with the Seattle Kraken on Thursday night.
David Pastrnak left Boston shorthanded when he caught Jamie Oleksiak in the mouth with his stick just 16 seconds into the game. This resulted in the Bruins having to kill off a double-minor penalty to begin the game. Seattle capitalized on the gift, scoring eight seconds into the man advantage.
Seattle scored their second goal four seconds after a penalty to Tyler Johnson had expired, giving the Kraken a two-goal cushion a little over five minutes into the game.
“After the first six minutes of the game when we were shorthanded, our 5-on-5 game started to come around,” Bruins interim head coach Joe Sacco told reporters in Seattle, per team-provided audio. “We regenerated, we had some opportunities, we had some looks. It just didn’t go into the back of the net for us tonight.”
The Bruins outshot the Kraken 34-21 in the contest, but Brad Marchand pointed out that the Black and Gold need to improve their game.
“I’d say we had some good looks. I think we can still continue to do better,” Marchand said, per team-provided audio. “We definitely passed some shots up. There were some plays in the middle, but we’ve got to clean it up defensively big time.”
The Bruins gave up eight goals to the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday and then allowed Seattle to score five in the lopsided loss.
“We can’t be giving up five, six goals a game,” Marchand said. “That’s not the type of team we are. We got some pucks on net and made some good opportunities with the push after they got up 2-0, but we still need to be better.”
Marchand cut the lead in half when he scored a penalty shot goal on Philipp Grabauer midway through the second. But unfortunately for Boston, it would be the only tally the Bruins could get past the Kraken goalie.
“When you get down 2-0 that quick in a game, it’s just really deflating and gives them a ton of momentum and allows them to feel really comfortable and confident in the game,” Marchand said. “… We felt like after we got that first one that we were going to get the second one. Their goalie made some big saves and kind of weathered the storm, and then we just kind of fell apart.”
More Bruins
Here are more notes from Thursday’s Bruins-Kraken game:
— Marchand’s penalty shot goal was the seventh of his career. He moved past Mario Lemieux and is now tied with Pavel Bure for the most in NHL history, according to NHL Public Relations.
— The Bruins are 0-2-0 to begin their five-game road trip and have been outscored 13-2 in those contests.
— Boston continues to lead the league with 33 penalties this season. The Bruins have allowed 25 power-play goals for a 77.1% successful kill rate.
— The Bruins will look to get back into the win column when they travel to Vancouver to take on former teammate Jake DeBrusk and the Canucks on Saturday night. Puck drop from Rogers Arena is scheduled for 10 p.m. ET. You can watch the game, following an hour of pregame coverage, on NESN.