Final: Pittsburgh 2, Boston 1

The Bruins’ five-game win streak came to an end against the reigning Cup champs, but the Bruins suffered a bigger loss when Marc Savard was knocked unconscious by a viscous elbow from Matt Cooke with 5:37 to play. The Bruins also dropped to eighth in the East with the loss and Montreal’s shootout win in Anaheim. Boston trails the Habs by one point but has three games in hand. Those games might not mean much if they have to play them without Savard.

Records: Boston 29-24-11, 69 points; Pittsburgh 40-22-4, 84 points

Revisiting the Three Keys for the B’s:

1. Thomas time – It’s three straight strong games from Thomas, who is finally looking like his old self again. It wasn’t enough to steal a point in this one, but Thomas can’t be faulted. He kept the Bruins in the game they really had no right being in as they managed just 11 shots through the first two periods. But Thomas made 31 saves despite constant traffic in front. The Bruins let the Penguins take way too many liberties in crashing the crease, but Thomas stood up to the punishment and nearly stole another win.

2. No let up – It wasn’t one of their monumental collapses, but the Bruins did squander a 1-0 lead as Pittsburgh rallied to tie it late in the second, then won it early in the third. Boston actually played better as the game went on after being outshot 10-3 in the first, but the Penguins were simply too explosive for the Bruins, almost toying with them at times with their talent advantage.

3.  Savvy scoring – Just as Savard seemed poised to go on a scoring run after ending a 19-game goal-less drought yesterday, Cooke’s hit has put him on the shelf indefinitely. Savard had just one shot, with another attempt blocked and two missing the net in 16:54 before he was injured.

Key Play of the Game:

The biggest moment of the game was also the most disturbing, and it may have a big impact on many more games depending on how long Savard is out. With the Bruins pressing for the tying goal late, Savard let go a shot from the high slot, only to be blindsided after releasing the puck. Cooke came in and delivered a direct shot to his head with what appeared to be an elbow. Even if it was a shoulder, it was still a predatory hit toward the head that should be severely punished by the league. Amazingly, Cooke was not penalized on the play, and no Bruin – Zdeno Chara, Milan Lucic, Michael Ryder and Dennis Wideman were on the ice at the time, though Chara headed to the bench for a change as Matt Hunwick came on – did anything to try to get retribution against Cooke. Much more on the hit and the Bruins’ lack of response can be found in my column here.

Fight Card:

There were no fights in this one, with the closest thing a brief shoving match between Mark Stuart and Ruslan Fedotenko that drew matching roughing minors midway through the second. There should have been much more after the Savard hit, but there was a disgraceful lack of response from his teammates.

Flynn’s Finest:

Thomas earns top marks again with his 31-save performance that kept the Bruins in the game. Blake Wheeler scored Boston’s lone goal, sticking with the play to poke it free from Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury and tap it in on the power play. David Krejci had one of the assists on that goal and was Boston’s best forward early, drawing a pair of penalties in the first, though he ended up finishing the day a minus-2. Marco Sturm had the primary assist on Wheeler’s goal with the initial shot in from the right post. Patrice Bergeron helped hold Sidney Crosby to just one assist and was 13 of 18 on face-offs (72 percent). Stuart was a physical force with three hits and three blocked shots in 18:35 and was the lone Bruin to take issue with Fedotenko’s crease-crashing. Chara also had three hits and four blocked shots, but did nothing to stick up for Savard when it mattered most.

Flynn’s Sin Bin:

The Bruins as a whole deserve a permanent spot in the sin bin for their disgusting lack of response to the cheap shot on Savard. Not only did Chara, Lucic, Wideman and Ryder fail to do anything to Cooke when it happened, but Chara, Lucic, Steve Begin, Ryder and Dennis Seidenberg were out opposite Cooke again in the closing minutes and still made no effort to exact any retribution. There were other lowlights, such as Miroslav Satan finishing a minus-2 with just one shot in 13:09, Lucic managing no shots and only one hit despite being moved up to the top line alongside Savard and Ryder during the game and all the Bruins letting the Penguins run roughshod over Thomas, but all that pales in comparison to the three-pronged injustice of the Savard incident. Cooke shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near an NHL rink again after his latest brutal cheapshot. Referees Marc Joannette and Tim Peel shouldn’t be allowed to call any games for a while after failing to call a penalty on the play. And no Bruin should be able to look in the mirror for a good, long time after doing absolutely nothing to stand up for their fallen teammate.

Next: While Savard remains behind in Pittsburgh, the Bruins head to Toronto to continue their seven-game road trip with a game against the Maple Leafs on Tuesday.

Down on the Farm: Jordan Knackstedt did it again with his fifth goal in his last five games, but Providence fell to Lowell 3-2 in a shootout. Knackstedt, who has 8-9-17 totals in his last 14 games, scored from Zach Hamill and John Lammers, while Jamie Arniel scored from Trent Whitfield and Jeff Penner. Scott Fletcher did what no one on the big club would do, pounding out a win over Myles Stoesz in the game’s only bout after Stoesz boarded Rob Kwiet. Providence (31-30-3-1) hosts Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on Friday.

Tags: Penguins

posted: Monday, March 8th, 2010 at 12:53 am / Post-Game Breakdowns /
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