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Penalties lead to B’s undoing at the hands of the Penguins

 03.15.09 at 8:18 pm ET
By Joe Haggerty

Take penalties against the New York Islanders and you might just be able to kill them off.

Take those some penalties against hockey guys named Crosby, Malkin, Gonchar and Guerin and you might not be quite as lucky in the world of the NHL. That seemed to be the moral of the story for a Boston Bruins team that trudged off to the sin bin eight different times in a 6-4 loss to a white-hot Pittsburgh Penguins squad on Sunday afternoon. Sidney Crosby and Co. have taken points in each of their last 10 games during a meteoric rise over the last few weeks through the Eastern Conference standings.

It appeared a week or two ago that the Penguins might be a potentially dangerous first round opponent for the Spoked B in the playoffs, but it now appears that Mario’s Boys are shooting their way up into the middle of the pack once the “tournament” starts in mid-April.

But now the Bruins are left holding the hockey bag once again with no points after they couldn’t find a way to muster that one final goal in the final eight minutes of regulation to send the game into OT — and in the process gather another all-important point providing space between themselves and the hard-charging New Jersey Devils and Washington Capitals.

It’s eye-opening to watch some NHL playoff-caliber teams simply will themselves to overtime in tight one-goal games when valuable points are on the line, but time-after-time the Bruins haven’t been able to grind their way into the extra session. It’s a test of will and determination that this team could and should have — particularly if they could show the kind of frenetic throw-everything-at-the-net jump that they showed once Pittsburgh netted the open-net goal in the third period.

Less than 24 hours after singing the praises of a Bruins team able to snuff out a Mark Streit-led Isles power play unit during a third period 5-on-3, the B’s once again spent plenty of ice time on the PK. This time, though, the high-powered Penguins made them pay for it — with some of the penalties of the questionable variety and others simply sloppy decision-making and bad judgement infractions.

Case in point: a Dennis Wideman slashing penalty in the first period that came after the whistle and seemed more out of frustration than anything else in a fairly chippy, high-intensity hockey game. That Wideman penalty led directly to a power play score for Chris Kunitz during a mad scramble right in front of the Bruins net.

The good news for all those stockholders in Black and Gold Inc: Phil Kessel continues to heat up and resemble the guy that looked like he was going to be a 50-goal scorer before mono knocked him back for a bit. The 21-year-old now has goals in three straight games, and has given the B’s a much-needed offensive transfusion. Blake Wheeler also looked like he had as much spring in his step as he displayed during the entire first half of the season. The big rookie potted his first goal since a Feb. 17 game against the Carolina Hurricanes — a span of 11 games that the 6-foot-5 former Golden Gopher had endured without a lamp-lighter.

Injury Ward:Dennis Wideman took a shot off the right knee in the third period and was hobbled — but the blueliner continued to play through the injury for the remainder of the third period.

Player of the Game:The Penguins felt like they addressed some of their grit/competitiveness issues when they traded for Chris Kunitz and Bill Guerin, and both skaters seemed to be in vintage postseason form while each totalling three points and playing big, big roles in the victory over the Bruins. For the B’s, the Wheeler/Kessel/Marc Savard was pretty effective throughout the game.

Goat Horns:Dennis Wideman had one shot on goal, took two penalties (including one after the whistle that led to a Penguins goal) and was a -3 for the night. All in all, pretty ugly. It wasn’t really a banner day for any of the Boston blueliners, and the shot that clanged off his knee in the third period just dropped his afternoon from bad to worse.

Turning Point: The Bruins had a 3-2 lead headed into the third period and things seemed to be in a good spot for the Black and Gold, but a pair of Penguins strikes within 18 seconds of each other in the opening moments of the third period really sapped the energy right out of the Penguins. The Bruins managed to tie things up again in the third, but the quick attack of the Penguins clearly knocked the B’s skaters back on their heels in the final 20 minutes of the eventual loss.

Read More: Blake Wheeler, Dennis Wideman, Zdeno Chara, Print  |  Email   | Bark It Up!  |  Digg It
  • Peter

    Case in point: a Dennis Wideman slashing penalty in the first period that came after the whistle and seemed more out of frustration than anything else in a fairly chippy, high-intensity hockey game. That Wideman penalty led directly to a power play score for Chris Kunitz during a mad scramble right in front of the Bruins net.

    Joe,

    I replayed that play over many times trying to figure out exactly who the slash was on. Was it against Hal Gil when Widman was curling back up ice?
    He came in contact with no one else, not even close and his contact with Gil was more of an attempt to avoid him than anything else. My point is you seem to rest the 8 penalties soley on the Bruins yet the inconsistancy of the officials should take most of that blame. PJ gets called for interference behind his own net when the replay shows he makes little contact with the player, is in front of the player, and because the player drops like a lead brick, up goes the arm. Yet at the other end of the ice, Bitz gets run into the net while chasing a puck….no penalty there. The Widman holding call at the very beginning of the game, yes he had his free hand off his stick yet did you happen to notice where the skater he was defending against free hand was?? Right across Widman’s body. Andy Brickley even mentioned something about that, but heck, what does Brick know about hockey…..No one is going to beat that team if they get put in the box that many times in a game. Oh, btw, just read your head to head with Felger regarding the Bruins playoff chances. Someone might advise Felger to stick with something he has a clue about. When he posts a comment regarding Kessel and his “history” of disappearing, one wonders what history that might be since he’s only played two years prior in the league. The only history one might refer to here is the one in which Felger, time and again, makes a total fool of himself.

  • http://bigbadblog.weei.com Joe Haggerty

    Peter…I totally agree that some of the calls were of the ticky-tack variety, but the Wideman call seemed to be for something that happened after the whistle. It was something the refs were obviously trying to nip in the bud. I agree with Brick on the holding call, but the slash was an error in judgement on Wideman, IMHO.

    Some of the other calls, like the holding call on Wideman and interference on Axelsson were definitely bogus…but I’m not going to let Wideman and Z off the hook for having really subpar games. They’ve have some of their worst games in the last 2-3 weeks along with the rest of the team, and need to tighten things up.

    Love the Felger vitriol…keep it coming.

  • Dave

    Haggs,
    I’ve been thinking more and more about the Kessel or Krecji option for next season. Since it’s a slow week I figured I’d toss it out there. Ideally, I’d like to keep both but realize it could be tough to do with the cap. Everyone seems to think it’s a no brainer to keep Krecji and try to move Kessel. I’m on the other side of the fence. Considering the Bruins depth up the middle on the roster and in the minors and the unique skillset Kessel possesses, couldn’t you make the arguement that Kessel is more valuable? Who else in the system possesses his speed and scoring ability? Could guys like Hamill and Colbourne develop into good all around players like Krecji making him the more expendable of the two?
    Considering what he’s gone through early on in his career, cancer and mono, and the gamebreaking talent he possesses, I think it would be a huge mistake to let him go. Even when he “disappears” I still see him getting chances but not burying them and using his speed to create space. During the teams recent slump he seems to be one of the few constant threats to score in the line-up. I think Kessel is harder to replace and you’d miss him more in the long run.
    What do you think? If you are doing a mailbag soon you can answer this question there if you want.

  • http://bigbadblog.weei.com Joe Haggerty

    I will be doing a mailbag soon, Dave…tonight in fact. I’ll save it until then, but I think there are both pros and cons to locking up Kessel long term. I will say that potential 40-50 goal scorers don’t exactly grow on trees, and they are up there with cornerstone D-men and clear cut franchise goalies as the most valuable commodities in all the NHL.

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