The B-Side: stats and facts from Boston's Game 1 loss to Montreal
The Bruins had their chances in Game 1 vs the Habs. A lot of chances.
That was the difference in the opening game of the series. Coupled with Carey Price emulating a brick wall for a majority of the night, the Bruins could not find a way to get the puck in the back of the net.
The series isn't over after one game. And the Bruins suddenly don't know how to score. If they throw as much as they did at Price and the Habs as they did on Thursday night going forward, the goals will come.
And without further ado, here are the notable stats and facts from Game 1:
The Habs took Game 1 with a 4-3 victory in double-OT (via ESPN.com) |
That was the difference in the opening game of the series. Coupled with Carey Price emulating a brick wall for a majority of the night, the Bruins could not find a way to get the puck in the back of the net.
The series isn't over after one game. And the Bruins suddenly don't know how to score. If they throw as much as they did at Price and the Habs as they did on Thursday night going forward, the goals will come.
And without further ado, here are the notable stats and facts from Game 1:
- Zdeno Chara logged 32:25 in time on ice, the most he's logged thus far in the playoffs. The game going to double-overtime may have had something to do with it.
- Brad Marchand finally got off the schneid and recorded his first points of the playoffs after getting shutout vs the Wings. Marchand picked up two assists, one on Reilly Smith's goal and again when he set up Johnny Boychuck late in the third.
- Speaking of Boychuck, his bomb in the third period was his 13th-career postseason goal. And he gave us the double pistols as his celly of choice. I approve.
- The Bruins registered 51 shots on Care Price. That was their highest total of the season, with the previous high being 43 vs the Capitals back on March 6.
- Boychuck led the Bruins with six shots. David Krejci, Matt Bartkowski and Reilly Smith recorded five a piece.
- The only players that did NOT register a shot on goal? Kevan Miller and Danny Paille.
- I didn't think Milan Lucic had a great night at all. He looked slow, he couldn't connect on breakout passes or passes in general, he whiffed on one particular scoring chance in the third period, and overall, he just didn't look like the Lucic from the Detroit series. He did set up Torey Krug for the Bruins' second goal in the third period, so he had that going for him on the night.
- Defenseman Kevan Miller was an absolute monster. He logged 25:41 TOI while planting seven body-crushing hits throughout the night.
- The best player on the ice was Carey Price. The Bruins peppered him with shot after shot and he stood tall each time.
- Second best player? P.K. Subban. His 33:49 TOI was tops in the game. He landed five hits, recorded three shots on goal, blocked three shots, and oh yeah, he launched the two powerplay goals at the beginning and end of the game. The B's will have to do a better job of containing him going forward, and they can start by closing down on his open shots from the blueline.
- Tomas "Turtleneck" Plekanec was the one who beat Patrice Bergeron clean off the faceoff right before Subban's rocket won the game for the Habs. Bergeron went 19 for 29 at the dot through the game.
- The Matt Bartkowski penalty in double-overtime was a fair call. I understand that refs let a ton of stuff go and the unwritten rule in playoff overtimes is to let the borderline plays go by the wayside. But Bartkowski got beat around the net and got a pretty good hold of Dale Weise, and he planted him in the ice right in front of the crease. You can't expect the ref, while he's looking right in the area, to let that go by when the Canadiens are in the zone.
- Danny Paille returned to action for the first time this postseason after missing all five games vs Detroit with a head injury. Paille recorded no shots on goal, was a minus-1 with 16:27 TOI.
- How many missed chances did the Bruins have? Too many to keep track of. Really. Torey Krug held onto the puck for three seconds too long instead of letting it go. David Krejci's two breakaways; their first powerplay saw Iginla fire wide past the post, Dougie Hamilton hit the crossbar and Carl Soderberg inches away from jamming home a loose puck. Bergeron flipped the biscuit over an empty-net while Price was down. Loui Eriksson rang the crossbar. Lucic whiffed on a feed from Krejci with the open-net in front of him. A deflection in overtime saw the puck whistle past the goalline almost parallel to the red stripe and out back the other side of the net. Brad Marchand ripping a shot in the slot through a screen and Carey Price just getting his right pad to it; a few more inches higher and it's in the back of the net.
- Game 2 is tomorrow at 12:30.