Snap Shots: Bruins 8, Pens 4
* The Bruins are a good team. They're at the top of the standings for a reason, and they showed why tonight. That being said, the Pens just clearly didn't come ready to play and to play the right way. "This was a team thing," head coach Mike Sullivan said. "We all have to be better. I've got to do a better job as their coach to make sure that the details and focus that are necessary to play the game the right way is there. I know we're a good hockey team when we play the game the right way. But I think the reality is there's a fine line between winning and losing, there's a lot of good teams in this league, this was a good team that we played. They played with structure, they played hard. We just didn't get it done tonight."
* This was the Pens' third straight loss, and the sentiment amongst the team throughout this winless stretch is that they're trying to outscore teams instead of outplay them. Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang were adamant afterward that they obviously have to be better defensively. "We need to start understanding we can't play games like this," Malkin said. "If they score five, we score six. It's not right. We have four great lines in the offensive zone, but we have to start playing better in the D zone for sure."
* Battles were the biggest issue defensively. The centers struggled on faceoffs, giving Boston possession right off the draw. The forwards weren't managing the puck. The defensemen were chasing and looked discombobulated. They all looked shaky in coverage, getting outworked and outbattled. And finally, both goalies had rough nights. The Pens believe in both Tristan Jarry and Casey DeSmith, but the young netminders are both struggling right now. They weren't able to come up with the timely saves when the Pens needed them, but to be fair, their teammates left them hanging out to dry as well. Overall, it was just a difficult night on that side of the puck. They spent far too much time in their own zone.
* When they did get out of their end and go the other way, they got rewarded, at least early on. The game actually started relatively strong for the Penguins, with Olli Maatta scoring just 35 seconds in. The Bruins responded by taking a 3-1 lead. The Pens cut it to 3-2. The Bruins built it back to 5-2. The Pens answered and made it 5-3. Then the Bruins pulled away. It helped that Tuukka Rask, who also struggled early, started to settle in and started making saves. The Pens weren't able to test him often enough when he was fighting the puck, and they ended up with just 26 shots in the game.
* "Just play." That's been this team's motto ever since Sullivan took over and turned them from a mentally fragile team to a mentally strong one. They've become such a composed group that controls what they can on the ice, but I thought they let the Bruins get them off their game tonight. The Bruins played them physical and certainly toed the line, taking liberties with the Pens' star players. And they weren't happy about it, understandably so. But instead of skating away, they kept getting involved in post-whistle scrums and took too many penalties. They can't let teams agitate them like that.
* Speaking of penalties, the Pens paid for their undisciplined play as the Bruins scored three power-play goals in the game. The Bruins did a good job of getting shots on goal, breaking down coverage that way and then going to work moving the puck until they found an open player by the crease. Meanwhile, the Pens couldn't score on any of their opportunities. Special teams hurt them tonight.
