Here are my talking points from the Bruins’ 4-3 loss in Winnipeg . . .
GOLD STAR: Mark Schiefele was in the middle of just about everything for the Jets while factoring in three of their four goals, finishing with a goal and three points in his 19:08 of ice time. Schiefele had just the one shot on net and finished with just 6-of-15 face-off wins in the game, but he also used his elite skill and high pace of play to create tons of offense for Winnipeg straight out of the transition game. The goal was a tap-in midway through the first period, but his biggest play of the game was putting the gas pedal on the transition game while feeding a puck through that eventually led to a Jacob Trouba power play strike.
BLACK EYE: The entire fourth line wasn’t very good in the loss to the Jets, and Chris Wagner was saddled with the team-worst minus-2 in defeat. Wagner, Sean Kuraly and Noel Acciari were all caught below the goal line on the first goal of the game when Winnipeg caught them too deep, and attacked with the transition game going the other way. The fourth line can’t make those kinds of aggressive mistakes looking for offense when job No. 1 for them is keeping the puck out of their own net, and job No. 2 is playing with energy and making chipping in some offense. They can’t play that kind of high-risk game once it gets to the playoffs, and Wagner will need to tighten things up along with his other two regular energy linemates.
JETS 4, BRUINS 3
TURNING POINT: Once again it was the first period as the Bruins allowed the first goal of the game at the 1:08 mark of the period, and then found themselves down 2-0 once again just as they’ve been in each of the last few games. The Bruins simply aren’t starting on time, and that’s going to be death against good, playoff-caliber teams like the Jets. Once they got things going, the B’s scored a goal in the first period to bring back some of the momentum, and then really played well in the second period to even up the score. But it took too much of an effort to get back there and that resulted in the B’s falling short when it was all said and done after 60 minutes.
HONORABLE MENTION: Joakim Nordstrom has faced his share of criticism for staying in the B’s lineup without scoring, while younger players like Peter Cehlarik and Karson Kuhlman get shuttled back to Providence. But Nordstrom has proven his value as an experienced 200-foot player, and finally broke through the scoring slump to tally a goal in Thursday night’s loss. Nordstrom followed the play, crashed the net and shoveled in the rebound of a Kuraly shot to snap a 25-game goal-scoring drought and tie the game up in the second period. The Swedish forward finished with a goal, a plus-1 rating, three shots on net and a couple of hits in 9:51 of ice time, and finally has the monkey off his back.
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BY THE NUMBERS: 3 – The number of regulation losses in a row for the B’s after defeats to Pittsburgh, Columbus and Winnipeg, the first time they’ve lost three in regulation in a row since way back in December.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "I liked our effort. We didn’t start on time again. Their best players beat our best players early on, but then we finally got going. But we need to find a way to keep the puck out of the net whether it’s better team defense, better goaltending or better puck management. Whatever it is, we need to fix it." -- Bruce Cassidy, on NESN talking about the B’s 4-3 loss to Winnipeg where they still didn’t completely get the job done defensively.
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