The Bruins showed some fight in their season finale on Tuesday at the Garden, but in the end they just couldn’t finish the job.
The result was emblematic of their season.
The B’s wiped out a two-goal deficit only to see Brian Dumoulin beat Jeremy Swayman from the top of the left circle in overtime to lift the playoff-bound New Jersey Devils to a 5-4 win. The B’s finished the season 33-39-10.
The point gained in the OT loss also muddied the B’s draft positioning, as they pulled even in points with Philadelphia, who lost to Columbus on Tuesday. The Flyers have one game left against Buffalo and if they get a point in that game, the B’s will finish with the fourth draft slot. If the Flyers lose in regulation and they’re tied in points, the B’s will bump up to the fifth slot because they have the tiebreaker over Philly in regulation wins. With the lottery factored in, the B’s could pick first, second, fourth, fifth, sixth or seventh at the moment.
The B’s knew their season was ending with the regular season finale for a while now, but David Pastrnak, who competed to the end and finished with 43-63-106 totals, was not quite ready sift through the rubble of the season.
“I’m sad it’s over, obviously. That’ pretty much the only answer,” said the de facto captain when asked about his emotions. “We just finished the game so I don’t want to get too deep. We’ll have a chance to speak in a couple of days. It’s tough. You want to keep playing as a player. I’ll leave at that I guess.”
Morgan Geekie scored again to finish off his career year (to date, anyway) but if was tough square his personal accomplishments with the team’s failure.
“Obviously, I’m proud of the way I finished the year out but having the season be over now is tough to process. We’ve competed with good teams all year and to see it not pan out the way (we wanted) and the consistency we didn’t have, it sucks, for sure,” said Geekie.
What happens with interim coach Joe Sacco remains to be seen but, with the turnover that will be coming on the roster, it would not be a surprise of management decides to wipe the slate clean behind the bench. It certainly sounded like Sacco feels that that could happen. But T=he Medford native and long-time assistant was well-respected before he took over for Jim Montgomery in November and he did nothing to lose that respect in his tenure as the top guy.
“Joe’s awesome,” said Geekie. “He was put in a tough situation, for sure, just with where the team was at the time. He did a great job rallying us together. It’s unfortunate we couldn’t compete every night for him. I think when we did compete we had a great team. I think you saw that after the deadline and around Christmas, how good of a team we could be. But he’s a great man and a great coach. I had a lot of fun playing for him.”
Said Sacco: “I’m grateful for the opportunity that I had here. Being from this area as well, it’s special to coach in your hometown. That’s obviously an added bonus. I’ll think more about it as the days go on, but I’m proud of the guys. I know there’s been a lot of moving parts this year, but they never quit, right to the end.”
The Devils had been limping toward the post-season, coming into the Garden on a three-game losing streak which included the B’s 7-2 shellacking of them in Newark last week.
But they came out of the gate strong, peppering Swayman with the first six shots of the game and taking the first lead at 7:25. Timo Meier took a feed from Brett Pesce and, from a prime scoring area inside the right circle, beat Swayman to the far side over the blocker.
The B’s – namely, their top line – pushed back. On a delayed penalty, David Pastrnak fed Seventh Player Award winner Morgan Geekie, who ripped a long-range one-timer over goalie Jake Allen’s should to even it at 8:43, his 33rd of the season.
The goal extended Geekie’s career-high point streak to 11 game (9-10-19).
The line wasn’t done. Just 29 seconds into the second period, Pastrnak took a feed from Elias Lindholm on a rush down the slot, kicked it to his blade and beat Allen on a backhander that looked too easy. It marked Pastrnak’s sixth-straight multi-point game (6-11-17 in that span).
The Devils got even on a power play at 4:07 when the B’s were five seconds away from killing off the Fabian Lysell hooking infraction. Swayman thought he had covered a loose puck just outside his crease, but it had squirted out free. Stefan Noesen spotted it and swept the puck into the empty net.
And as has so often been the case in this lost season, the B’s then gave up the go-ahead goal just 30 seconds later. Old friend and Billerica native Marc McLaughlin won a Boston zone faceoff back to Simon Nemec, who put it quickly on net. It looked like an easy blocker stop for Swayman, but instead of the intended directional rebound into the corner, the puck popped up behind Swayman and dropped into the net. It was a goal that was indicative of Swayman’s season.
New Jersey doubled their lead at 13:27 on another power play goal. On a beautiful tic-tac-toe play, Luke Hughes dished to Nico Hischier who then relayed it to Dawson Mercer for the tap-in.
But just when B’s draft-minded fans could start tasting the fourth slot, the B’s pulled back within one on another first NHL goal. John Farinacci, who was making his NHL debut with Frederic Brunet, tracked down a rebound and snapped it over Allen’s shoulder to make it 4-3 with 3:07 left in the second.
Then they tied it up at 5:08 of the third on a nice play from Lysell. He outskated Brenden Dillon and then gained inside position on the rugged defenseman. He took the puck behind the net and fed Marat Khusnutdinov out front for the equalizer.
But once OT came, Dumoulin ended the B’s season the only way that was fitting — with a loss.
