Coming off better week of play, Bruins suffer case of the Mondays and lose an ugly one to the Blues
This is why nobody likes Mondays.
Or losing an hour of sleep.
Fresh off one of their best weeks of the season, the Bruins started a new one with an ugly 5-1 loss to the St. Louis Blues at TD Garden.
It wasn’t like the Bruins were outclassed — they dominated their guests territorially for most of the night — but they had trouble finishing and Blues goalie Joel Hofer was solid, allowing precious few rebounds to pounce on.
Jim Montgomery’s team collected 7 of 8 points last week but will now have wait until it heads to Montreal, the coach’s hometown, for Thursday’s meeting with the Canadiens to try to erase the memory of this one.
David Pastrnak scored the lone Boston goal, his 41st of the season, in the third period.
Despite outshooting and outchancing the Blues through the first 20 minutes, the Bruins were looking up at a 2-0 deficit as they headed to the dressing room.
The St. Louis goals came via a quirky bounce and too many Boston penalties.
The Bruins actually had the first chance on the power play when Brayden Schenn interfered with Brad Marchand just 53 seconds in. There was nothing doing for the Bruins with the man advantage as the Blues got three straight clears.
St. Louis broke the ice midway through the period. Old friend Torey Krug’s dump-in to the corner ricocheted off the kickplate and shot to the slot, where an unmarked Kasperi Kapanen caught up to the puck and ripped it past Swayman.
Boston had several golden chances to pull even, but bids by Jake DeBrusk (forehander off a speed rush), Jakub Lauko (slot backhander off a nifty Justin Brazeau feed), and Pastrnak (partial breakaway) were all turned aside by Hofer (36 saves).
