Slow Start Costs Bruins in Loss to Islanders

BOSTON - The Bruins pumped a season-high 50 shots on goal against the New York Islanders on Tuesday night at TD Garden. They had another 25 attempts blocked and 20 more flew wide of the net.
On the whole, Boston attempted 95 shots to the Islanders' 44 (29 of which landed on a Bruins goaltender).
The problem, though, as it has been all season, is the Bruins have struggled to create prime scoring opportunities. And when they do they have had trouble capitalizing on them.
The Bruins finally began to cash in against the Islanders, but it was far too late. Boston had already fallen into a three-goal deficit, and while a valiant effort in the third brought them within a goal, the Bruins fell, 4-2, at TD Garden.

"It doesn't happen every day where you get that many shots, but again we've got to continue to try and play on our toes and play aggressively to create those opportunities," said Dominic Moore, who notched his eighth goal of the season.
"I thought in the third period we did quite a bit of that. Sometimes teams play on their heels when they have the lead. I thought we did a good job of getting some momentum."

Goals by Anton Blidh (the first of his career) and Moore, just over four minutes apart early in the third period, had Boston thinking comeback. But a power-play tally by Anders Lee (his second goal of the night) at 13:02 of the frame put to bed those thoughts.
"We wait until we're in a hole, and the desperation, and I guess our work ethic and our compete level, should be that at the first [period], not in the third, when you're down 3-0," said Bruins coach Claude Julien.
"We've got to find that. It's not good enough, and we know that we struggle to score goals. Let's be ready to play, and the way we gave up goals tonight, didn't look to me like we were ready to play."
Lee's first goal came on an unlikely miscommunication by the Bruins just 3:05 into the game. With Tuukka Rask behind his net playing the puck, Brad Marchand swooped in and collided with the goaltender. The puck squeaked loose and Lee potted it into an open net.
"I think I was coming a little too fast and I didn't think that he was going to get back, and then he kind of saw me and tried to hurry up," said Marchand. "I was just in the wrong spot, so tough read by me."
Thomas Hickey converted on the end of a 3-on-1 break just 2:35 later and Nikolay Kulemin got one to trickle through Rask 38 seconds after that to open up a 3-0 Islanders lead. Rask headed to the bench after Kulemin's tally, with Anton Khudobin (he registered his first career point with an assist on Blidh's goal) taking over between the pipes for the remainder of the contest.
"The first one, there's nothing you can do about that," said Rask. "Second one, felt like all was square. Then, you know, to seal the deal and wish a Merry Christmas to the Islanders on the third one, and let's call it a night.
"But, I don't think you want to think about it too much. As our goaltending guru always says, 'You're never as good or as bad as you think.' So, it's an even keel."

Boston must rebound quickly as it heads out for a two-game road trip to Florida and Carolina ahead of the holiday break. Gaining points -in the form of wins - out of the final two contests before Christmas will be vital.
"It's really simple, going back to playing your game and being ready from the drop of the puck," Patrice Bergeron said of how the team can rebound. "We talked about this last stretch before the break. It was three games, now it's two, but it was three games that we wanted to get those points from and we needed to do the job and we didn't do that tonight.
"We didn't show up for the first two periods and we paid for it.

Blidh-Moore-Hayes Trio Feeling Good

One line that did show up was the trio of Blidh, Moore, and Jimmy Hayes. Hayes, who scored the lone goal in Boston's 1-0 win over Los Angeles on Sunday continued his strong play with an assist on Moore's tally, while also posting a plus-2 rating in 9:51 of ice time.
Blidh landed five shots on goal and delivered three hits, while Moore also registered a plus-2 and won five of seven face-offs.

"I don't know if I'm going to call it a fourth line, to be honest with you," said Julien. "They seem to be better than some of our lines. So right now, it's nice to see that some of those guys are doing their jobs, and we need more guys doing their jobs to the level that they should."
Moore's goal, which came off a tip from a Zdeno Chara shot, was his eighth of the season. He is third on the team behind David Pastrnak (19) and Marchand (nine).
"I think we were able to create some havoc in front of their net, which is always good," said Moore. "Trying to get pucks back on the forecheck and trying to get them towards the net - that's where hopefully good things happen."

Seidenberg Returns

Former Bruins defenseman Dennis Seidenberg played his first game against the team since signing with the Islanders following the World Cup of Hockey this fall. The bulky blue liner played parts of seven seasons in Boston, including the 2011 Stanley Cup championship campaign, during which he teamed with Chara to form a shutdown pairing throughout the postseason.
A tribute video, culminating with Seidenberg lifting the Cup, played during a TV timeout in the first period.
"I guess a lot of emotions," said Seidenberg, who has four goals and six assists for the Islanders this season. "A lot of good memories and it was a nice video and gesture of them."
Seidenberg was paired on Tuesday night with former Bruins teammate Johnny Boychuk.
"It was kind of a surprise that we got paired up, we were talking about different pairs," said Seidenberg, who was a plus-2 in 19:08 of ice time. "We didn't know that it was going to happen, but it was good."