Bruins Squander Early Lead, Fall to Red Wings in Detroit

DETROIT - The Bruins' three-game winning streak came to an end on Wednesday night with a 5-3 loss to the Detroit Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena. Despite being on the second end of a back-to-back, Boston came out firing and grabbed a 2-0 lead behind tallies from Erik Haula and Brandon Carlo but went on to surrender four straight goals to lose the lead in the second period.
"I felt like we got away from our game a little bit," said Carlo, whose marker with 5:43 remaining in the first period was the second shorthanded goal of his career. "I think when we're playing behind them and transitioning out of the neutral zone the best that we can, like we've talked about before, just execution wise of playing the right way, that's when our game's at the best. When we get away from that, things will slip. From there, we didn't find our push until a little bit too late."

Boston did push late in the third period to pull within a goal on Patrice Bergeron's tip-in tally with the B's net empty and 2:36 remaining but couldn't find the equalizer despite landing 50 shots on Detroit goalie Alex Nedeljkovic.
"He played well, he made some great saves," said Bergeron. "I think there were some really good looks, some plays that we'd like to have back or to see them again. I think there's a few that we didn't get the shot that we wanted. But give him credit, obviously. What was it…I don't what the shots were at the end, close to 50. Kudos to him for playing a great game."

More news and notes from the B's loss in Detroit:

Lindholm Leaves Early:Late in the second period, Hampus Lindholm exited with a lower-body injury and did not return. Following the game, Cassidy said that the blue liner "seemed OK" and the injury did not appear to be serious but that the club was awaiting more information.
"When you don't come back, there's probably going to be an X-ray involved or an MRI. He seemed OK in there, so I don't think it's serious," said Cassidy. "But obviously when you don't come back, you don't know until you get better information."
Another Bitter End: For the second straight game, the Bruins allowed a goal in the final minute of a period, a trend that has been growing more frustrating throughout the second half of the season. For the year, Boston has allowed upwards of 20 goals in the last minute of a frame.
On Tuesday night, with the B's holding a 2-0 advantage, Detroit struck just as a power play expired when Dylan Larkin notched his 30th of the season with 40 seconds remaining on the clock.
"It shouldn't affect the whole outcome of the game, obviously," said Cassidy. "We've been through it so much and it's a problem. Guys need to stop on the puck, take care of business there. That's what typically happens with us - the other night we left the zone early, that time it was two guys in a battle; they don't get the job done at the end and it finds its way in. I think it gives them life."

Power Still Out: The Bruins' power play, which has struggled to find consistency for several weeks, went 0 for 4 - a night after going 0 for 5 in an overtime win over the Blue Jackets. Given the recent troubles, Cassidy did not believe the absence of David Pastrnak (undisclosed injury) had much of a factor against the Red Wings.
"We were static. Really, really static lately even with him. It's a problem. Our power play used to snap it around. We've gotten to the point where it's too much, hold it, look, look, look. We've got to start moving the puck to open up some of those plays we typically make," said Cassidy, who deployed a first unit of Jake DeBrusk, Bergeron, Brad Marchand, Charlie McAvoy, and Lindholm to start the game.
"I thought in the third period we did a better job with it. The 5-on-4 with the goalie out, all that stuff. The puck started to move a little more as opposed to one guy trying to make the play all the time."
Cassidy said that when the Bruins return to practice on Thursday in Tampa, the power play will be a focus.
"Try to get them back to being more efficient moving the puck around and take the available shot, whatever that happens to be," said Cassidy. "Some of that is the pre-scout, we look for certain things. Maybe they have too much of that in their mind, this is the open play. Like Detroit in the past, we were able to get it into the bumper to Bergy - I don't know if you remember the start of the year, we got some good looks in there.
"I think we were forcing some plays in there, before we spread them out. That will be on me to correct that part of it. But we do need to get the puck moving quicker."

A Different Look: With Pastrnak and Trent Frederic both out with injury, Tomas Nosek moved up to play with Taylor Hall and Haula to begin the game, while Anton Blidh, Jack Studnicka, and Marc McLaughlin made up the fourth line. On the back end, Derek Forbort and Mike Reilly formed the third pair.
"The expectation is always to help us win," said Cassidy. "Some young guys get an opportunity…there's penalties, they have to sit and wait, but that's part of being a role player is to keep their motor ready when it's their turn to go out. Some lines got juggled around as a result obviously. Again, I thought we did enough offensively, to be quite honest with you. Their goaltender was excellent.
"Defensively we had some breakdowns in front of our net. We didn't defend hard enough, we didn't manage pucks. Couple guys in the second period, our third pair, they had a tough time. They got beat and couldn't manage a puck. In and out of the lineup, that doesn't help their cause, to be honest with you. We expect better and we expect our goalie to bail us out at time when you break down because when we look at it, there wasn't a lot of breakdowns…
"The guys that got a chance to play a little more, if you want to stay in the lineup - we've got some healthy competition - then you've got to bring it on the ice. That's your best opportunity. We're not gonna judge everyone on one game, but we're moving along here. There is opportunity that presents itself and you want to take advantage of it."