The Boston Bruins dropped their third straight game Monday night, falling 4-1 to the New York Islanders. Continuing a troubling trend of late, Boston came out of the gates slow and never really seemed to ratchet up the intensity as the game went on.
‘They’re a good team, and we know they’re a good team,’ defenseman Derek Morris said. ‘We just didn’t answer back. We lost a lot of battles. We weren’t real strong on our sticks. And it was everywhere, from the back end all the way up.’
Boston coach Claude Julien called out his top players after the game, saying that they need to step it up more.
‘Our best players right now, and I’ve said it before, are not at their best,’ he said. ‘When that happens, you can’t expect results if they’re not at their best. And that’s the bottom line . . . Right now, we have to have our best players playing their best if we’re going to turn this around and get going in the right direction.’
After a relatively slow start to the game for both teams, the Islanders (8-6-7) got on the board first at the 14-minute mark of the first period. Jack Hillen drove down the right wing and threw what appeared to be a harmless backhander on net, but Tuukka Rask (17 saves) allowed a rebound to squirt loose, and an unmarked Matt Moulson made him pay, burying it from the top of the slot for his ninth goal of the season.
‘We were just flat,’ Morris said. ‘When we’re on and we’re coming back hard and we’re sharp, those passes don’t come out.’
The Bruins (8-8-4), who outshot New York, 29-21, in the game, missed a golden opportunity to knot the game when they had a 5-on-3 power play for 1:36 with less than five minutes left in the first. Boston recorded three shots on the two-man advantage, but none of them were from in close.
‘If we score there, we have a different game,’ Julien said. ‘Instead, we end up flat after that.’
But Boston managed to avoid falling further behind despite going flat, and finally did tie things up at the 14:56 mark of the second. David Krejci ducked a hit along the left halfwall and drove to the net. The puck slipped off his stick, but went right to Daniel Paille at the right doorstep, and the first-year Bruin jammed it past Dwayne Roloson (28 saves) for his second goal of the season.
But New York recaptured the lead less than four minutes later. After Rask threw a clearing attempt off teammate Zdeno Chara, Richard Park (3 assists) picked up the puck in the right corner and sent a beautiful pass out front that Moulson one-timed home from the slot for his second goal of the game.
‘We usually get the puck and move it to our Ds in the corners,’ Julien said. ‘It’s a mistake that a young goaltender made. These are mistakes that you hope a guy like him will learn from.
‘We had a guy behind him who was wide open who yelled at him, but he didn’t hear him, so it’s a mistake.’
The Islanders added to their lead 1:50 into the third. Rookie sensation John Tavares, the first overall pick of the 2009 NHL Draft, tried to center a pass for Moulson, but it went off the skate of a Boston defender and snuck inside the far post for Tavares’ ninth tally of the season.
Trent Hunter added an empty-netter with 48 seconds to go to seal the win for New York.
‘We’re not moving the puck with any assertiveness,’ Julien said. ‘There’s not the confidence or the determination right now that we need to have in order to be successful.
‘They wanted it more than we did. It’s as simple as that.’
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