Their eight-game point streak may be over, but the Boston Bruins still gained value from their early-season benchmark loss against the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday.
Now, Boston looks to return to the winning track on Thursday night when they visit former coach Jim Montgomery and the St. Louis Blues.
In the first half of their brief road trip, the Bruins dropped a 2-1 decision against the NHL-leading Hurricanes despite taking a 1-0 lead on Pavel Zacha’s power-play tally 1:31 in and Jeremy Swayman staying sharp in a 28-save performance.
“I think (Nikita Zadorov) said it in the locker room, like, ‘We’re such a great team, and you’re not going to win them all,'” said Bruins defenseman Mason Lohrei. “Obviously, (Carolina is) a really good team, too, but I think when we were at 5-on-5, when we were playing our game, I think we controlled good parts of that game. You’ve just got to take the positives, and we’ll move on and be ready to win in St. Louis.”
While Zacha scored his third goal of the season and first in five games, Boston was held to one goal for the first time since an Oct. 5 loss to the Ottawa Senators — its last regulation defeat — and generated a season-low 16 shots.
From coach Marco Sturm’s view, his team’s major downfall in the game was made clear by the defending Stanley Cup champions. The Bruins were credited with 15 giveaways, while Carolina had seven takeaways.
“We had way too many turnovers,” Sturm said. “And again, not everyone was willing to play that style that you have to play against a playoff team and a champion like that. But when we do it, we just have to be patient enough.”
St. Louis enters Thursday’s game simply looking for a goal after suffering its first back-to-back shutouts since November 2018. The Blues lost 2-0 Tuesday against Montreal despite piling up 46 shots – 15 more than their previous season high – on the Canadiens’ Jacob Fowler.
The Blues have scored two or fewer goals in seven of their first 12 games, but they can claim a winning homestand (2-2-0) with a victory against Boston.
“There’s definitely a lot of good looks, and sometimes you’ve got to tip your cap to their goalie,” Blues captain Robert Thomas said of his team’s effort against Fowler. “He made a lot of good saves, and we’ve got to find a way to bear down a little bit more and put those in the net more. There’s a lot of things to like about (that game).”
Mason McTavish and Jimmy Snuggerud, who lead the Blues with six goals apiece this season, combined for eight shots against Montreal.
Before running into the red-hot Fowler, St. Louis took a 4-0 loss to Carolina on Saturday.
Montgomery viewed the two games completely differently in terms of the quality of offensive chances. Tuesday’s 46-21 shot advantage included a whopping 24-3 margin in the third period. Against the Canes, the Blues were outshot 39-24 — and the deficit wasn’t the main issue.
“Our 15 best chances, there’s not one in the Carolina game that would be in our top 15 (from Tuesday’s game). Not much similar,” Montgomery said. “I do think that you can see us believing in how we need to play, and that’s a positive. If we keep going with that, the results will follow.”
The Blues had forward Alexey Toropchenko in their lineup on Tuesday for the first time since he suffered an upper-body injury in the season opener Oct. 2.
Boston earned 5-2 wins in both meetings with St. Louis last season. Zacha scored two goals in the first meeting, then Fraser Minten and Mark Kastelic notched two goals apiece in the rematch five days later.