GOLD STAR: Give it up for John Gibson, who was terrific between the pipes for the Ducks and battled through after looking like he might leave the game with an injury in the third period. Instead Gibson stuck around long enough to stop all 25 shots that he faced, and really shut down the Bruins in the final 40 minutes once they began getting their offense going. His biggest stops probably came in the second period when the Bruins gathered some momentum on an early power play, but Gibson then slammed the door by stopping Tim Schaller cold off the rush, and then shut off David Backes’ rebound attempt right afterward. Clearly the Bruins had a hard time really getting inside to challenge Gibson around the front of the net, but he was very good stopping everything that he saw for the two points. Ryan Miller replaced Gibson late in the game after a Patrice Bergeron shot initially stung the Ducks tender, and gave up the only goal to the Bruins late in the third.
BLACK EYE: It was a literal black eye for the Bruins on Tuesday night as they watched Anders Bjork and David Backes both get knocked out of the game. For Bjork it was a cross-check to the left arm that he didn’t see coming, and seemed to do something to either his shoulder or arm before he crumpled to the ice in pain. With Backes it was a late hit up high from Nik Ritchie in the third period that sent him dazed to the ice afterward. In both instances there was no penalty from the refs on the ice, and there was no real response from the Bruins on the ice after it happened. Certainly it would have been tough late in the third period to avenge the Backes hit, but sitting around and letting Anaheim take runs at all your players isn’t a very viable solution either.
TURNING POINT: The Bruins simply didn’t come out of the starting gate ready to go and it ended up costing them the two points. The Bruins were outshot 15-5 while slow out of the gate, and Anton Khudobin looked rusty while bobbling pucks and essentially letting in the first goal when he couldn’t properly corral a puck on a perimeter shot. Put it all together with a physical Ducks group that pushed the Bruins all over the ice, and you had a disappointing, timid opening 20 minutes of hockey that ended up costing them the game. By the time the Bruins got their game in order and Zdeno Chara lined up Ryan Getzlaf with a big hit, it was far too late for a B’s team that’s gotten away with a lot of the slow starts lately.
HONORABLE MENTION: Give it up to Anaheim defenseman Cam Fowler, who has really elevated his game to be the No. 1 guy on the back end for a Ducks team that relies on him for plenty. Fowler assisted on two of Anaheim’s three goals including the point shot that handcuffed Anton Khudobin leading to the Ducks first goal, and he filled out the rest of the box score in his 25 plus minutes of ice time. Fowler finished with two assists, a plus-2 rating, one shot on net, four shot attempts, one hit, two takeaways and three blocked shots during a night’s work. It wasn’t a monumental effort by the Ducks on Tuesday night in a bit of a sloppy game coming back from the All-Star break, but Fowler was one of the few that had his “A” game going.
BY THE NUMBERS: 14-0-4 – the 18-game point streak officially came to an end on Tuesday night with the loss to the Ducks, so the Bruins will have to settle for tying the second-longest streak in Bruins history and immediately starting another one.
QUOTE TO NOTE: “I thought they did a good job of coming out and punching us in the mouth metaphorically speaking. There were times that it seemed like they were hitting us and we weren’t hitting back. We’ve got to focus on ourselves and make sure that we’re using our legs.” –Torey Krug, on the loss to a bigger, stronger and heavier Ducks squad on Tuesday night.