The Detroit Red Wings were once again bested on the road last night in Boston, dropping a 5-1 decision that saw Bruins captain Patrice Bergeron net four goals.
Just like their previous game in Montreal, the Red Wings weren’t able to get anything going offensively, being outshot 37-15. Their setback dropped them to 1-11-2 in their previous 14 games at TD Garden, the 2014 playoff series included.
Head coach Jeff Blashill admitted afterwards that Bergeron’s superhuman performance wasn’t something they prepared for, especially the fact that the Bruins captain was able to find himself so wide open in front of Detroit’s net on several occasions.
“(Covering) Bergeron in the slot is a job that we missed an assignment on twice,” Blashill said after the game. “We went over it lots before — I know (we) went over it pretty heavy about making sure what the assignments were — and we missed the assignment twice.”
Meanwhile, Blashill said that while he was displeased with the final result, it wasn’t due to a lack of effort on his team’s part.
“I was satisfied with the effort and compete level, I didn’t think they were poor, even until the end there,” Blashill said. “At the end of the night, the game came down to special teams. You need to be able to stay out of the box and kill penalties….we need to do a better job of killing penalties.”
It was an easy night for Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman, who only needed to make 14 saves. The only puck that found its way past him was courtesy of Lucas Raymond, who fired a one-timer from the face-off circle on a two-man advantage in the 3rd period.
“You need to shoot to create chaos,” Blashill said. “I just thought we passed up tons of shots. There were times when we were in their end but we didn’t shoot enough pucks and create enough chaos. It wasn’t that we didn’t have opportunities, but we didn’t create chances.”
The Red Wings will wrap up their four game road swing Saturday night against the Buffalo Sabres.
– – Quotes via Brad Galli Link – –
