Bruins lose to Lightning in an unusual way: 'We played great'

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Mike Carlson / Getty Images Share full articleTAMPA — The Boston Bruins allowed the winning goal on Saturday in the most unusual of situations: what should have been a routine save for Jeremy Swayman. The Bruins’ goalie is on pace to be a Vezina Trophy finalist. Before Saturday’s 3-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning, Swayman had saved a league-high 28.6 goals above expectation, according to MoneyPuck. He is the No. 1 reason the Bruins are comfortable as the No. 1 wild-card entry. So when Darren Raddysh flipped a 32-foot shot on goal from outside the right faceoff dot in the third period, the last thing anyone expected was for it to find the back of the net. Swayman saw Raddysh’s release. He was square to the shot. But Raddysh’s shot clunked off the right side of Swayman’s chest and under his right armpit. “Any 2-1 game, you’re going to get goals that are magnified,” answered Swayman (20 saves) when asked how Raddysh’s shot went in. “At the same time, it’s our job to move forward and really take positives. A lot of great things came out of tonight’s game. That’s what we need to focus on.” The Bruins deserved better. Through two periods, according to Natural Stat Trick, the Bruins held the Lightning to 0.82 expected five-on-five goals.  Nikita Kucherov, the NHL’s No. 2 scorer, was quiet. Linemates Brayden Point and Jake Guentzel were doing nothing.  It got to the point where Tampa coach Jon Cooper broke up his No. 1 line. The Bruins were checking the life out of his team’s firepower. “We played great,” said coach Marco Sturm. “We played a really, really good hockey game five-on-five. The little details now — don’t get the puck in, maybe on the power play — those things are hurting right now unfortunately.” Sturm’s point was that situational dips cost the Bruins two points. Yes, Swayman should have stopped Raddysh’s shot. But the Tampa defenseman got his opportunity because Casey Mittelstadt did not drive the puck in deep when the score was tied in the third period. As Mittelstadt crossed the offensive blue line, J.J. Moser got his stick on the puck. When Mittelstadt tried to recover the puck, Raddysh swooped in and went the other way.  A backchecking Mittelstadt took two whacks at Raddysh’s stick to halt his advance. The defenseman pulled away from Mittelstadt to put his winning puck on net. “They did a good job,” Sturm said of his second line. “But then they were on the ice against. They’ve been on for the last three, four games. They’ve been producing. But on the other side, they’ve got to make sure they do their job of getting the pucks out of our net.” Sturm was also speaking about how an 0-for-4 power play didn’t do anything helpful. They recorded only six shots on Andrei Vasilevskiy during eight minutes of man-advantage time. The Bruins had three straight power plays to extend their lead after Mittelstadt’s second-period goal. Even after Charle-Edouard D’Astous tied the game in the third, the Bruins had a fourth power play 2:18 later. Sturm tried to jog it to life by toggling his personnel on the No. 1 unit: Mittelstadt on the right-side half-wall for one power play, Morgan Geekie on his off side on another. “In the past, our power play gave us an extra boost,” said Sturm. “We could have needed it tonight. Unfortunately we didn’t. Those guys need to step up too. That second goal, it’s huge. We had those opportunities.” Sturm made two lineup moves against the Lightning. Lukas Reichel, the No. 3 left wing, was a healthy scratch for the first time as a Bruin. Reichel sat in place of Mikey Eyssimont (three shots, 12:00 of ice time). Reichel had not been as strong on the puck as the Bruins need him to be. “Structure-wise, he was never in trouble,” Sturm said. “I just think — it’s playoff hockey — he needs to be hard on pucks, getting pucks in, getting pucks out. Just be hard. That’s something he never faced before in his career. If you look at his path with Chicago and Vancouver, he never really played playoff-style hockey. It’s just something he has to learn.” On defense, Sturm pulled Henri Jokiharju off the No. 2 pair and replaced him with Jordan Harris. Mason Lohrei (upper body) was unavailable for a fourth straight game. Jokiharju was on the ice for both of the Florida Panthers’ goals in the Bruins’ 2-1 loss on Thursday. Harris played an efficient 14:14, earning Sturm’s praise. “We were solid throughout most of the game,” said Harris. “I thought our D-zone was pretty good. I thought we could have managed the puck a little better, myself included, in the neutral zone. But we didn’t give them a whole lot. That’s a positive to take away from it. I think they’re the No. 1 team in our division right now, and we’re there the whole game. Easily could have gone the other way.” Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Fluto Shinzawa is a senior writer for The Athletic covering the Boston Bruins. He has covered the team since 2006, formerly as a staff writer for The Boston Globe. Follow Fluto on Twitter @flutoshinzawa