Bruins Overtime is a postgame feature providing extra news, notes and analysis from each game. Boston lost to the New York Rangers, 3-2 in OT, Saturday afternoon in Boston, MA.
It came down to the final three seconds in overtime, but the Rangers managed to earn the two points over the Bruins on Saturday after forward Marian Gaborik continued to whack at rebounds in front of netminder Tuukka Rask.
The Bruins have dropped three of their last five games now, and don't have much time to recover with two more games in the next three days.
FERENCE EARNS GAME MISCONDUCT
He doesn't receive too many game misconducts, but it seems pretty evident that this one was deserved after he slammed Rangers forward Ryan McDonagh into the boards 1:50 into the overtime frame.
"Well, I’m obviously going as fast as I can to try and get to the puck. I realized I wasn’t going to get there first, he boxed me out, I tried to lean back, but I was going too fast. Obviously it was a dangerous position, so I tried to let up and didn’t let up fast enough."
The Bruins were left shorthanded for the rest of overtime, and it came back to bite them. Ference doesn't have a history of violent hits, and he spoke after the game saying that he didn't intend to go into the boards that hard, but he admitted he didn't pull up quickly enough and that was the end result.
There should be a league ruling from Brendan Shannahan before tomorrow's Flyers game at 3 p.m. The only other time in recent history Ference had conduct issues was back last year when he seemingly flicked off the Montreal crowd after scoring a goal in the playoffs.
FORWARDS CAN'T FIND BACK OF THE NET
Though they have had no problem in the last few games, the forwards didn't have success this game, leaving all the scoring to be done by the defensive side of the game.
Ference and Adam McQuaid scored the only two goals for Boston while the offensive lines were kept quiet by Henrik Lundqvist. The two defensemen combine for six goals on the season--Ference with four and McQuaid with two. However, Ference has two goals in his last two games.
The Bruins did manage to get 34 shots on net, though, and according to McQuaid, the Rangers were so good at getting into shooting and passing lanes that it definitely was more difficult getting quality scoring opportunities.
"We knew they were going to sacrifice the body and it felt like at time there were five goalies," McQuaid said. "So they collapse a little bit and just when you get it by the first guy, there's another guy behind him that blocks it. It's not an easy thing to do and they do it, so you have to give them credit for it."
MARC SAVARD MAKES HIS WAY BACK TO TD GARDEN
Almost a year ago exactly, Bruins forward Marc Savard played his last game against the Colorado Avalanche. He left the ice after former teammate Matt Hunwick hit him into the boards on January 22, 2011 and hasn't played in a game since then.
But he was back in the Garden showing his support for his new suite box and addressed the media for the first time since February of last year.
Though it's still up in the air what he plans on doing with his career, he said he is "really happy" and enjoying life from a different perspective.
"I just want to kind of take this whole year to see how everything goes throughout the year and really gauge myself," Savard said. "I tried to work out a couple times this week, just little bike rides here, and it didn't feel that bad. We'll see how that goes and just keep building off it."
NEXT UP:
The Bruins will fly out to Philadelphia tonight to prepare for tomorrow's game against the Flyers at 3 p.m. They have two games in the next three days before they break for the All-Star Game. The second of the two games come against Washington on Tuesday.
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