Who knew that a team that outscored their opponent 19-10 in the first four games this season would come back to lose 1-0 at home, facing a goaltender who has played just three games this year.
If you said, you thought that, you might be right.
The month of February has been rough for the Bruins, as they fell to a 5-7-1 record--the first losing month they have had since October. They have also not had back-to-back wins during this month, or last month for that matter.
But if there was one good thing about tonight's game, it was Tim Thomas' play. Allowing only one goal (and with a little luck on his side for a couple of the shots), he was lights out for the majority of the game, keeping his team within one shot of coming back.
But that shot wasn't there. For the first two period, the Bruins accumulated just 15 shots, while the Senators were skating circles around them, posting 31 shots on Thomas in the same amount of time, and producing a power play goal--the first of the season series for them.
The lone goal in the game came at 14:44 in the first period, as Erik Karlsson netted his 14th goal of the season through a screen in front of Thomas. Karlsson extended his point streak to eight games and has been a force out on the ice for the Senators.
""Yup. That’s a hard two points to let slip away after we beat them last game," Bruins defenseman Joe Corvo said. " I just feel like you need to get something out of this game, a point at least, and it’s very disappointing."
One of the headlines into tonight's game was whether Corvo was going to start something with Kyle Turris after last game where Turris hit him into the glass. Nothing transpired during the game, and Corvo wasn't going to force anything.
"I asked him and he wasn’t interested," Corvo said. "It ended like that. His teammates said he wasn’t going to fight me so that’s it. I wasn’t going to be the idiot chasing him around."
There were a couple of moments where the B's were ready to drop the gloves, but none of the Senators would bite. Shawn Thornton and Adam McQuaid were among the willing.
But even without the fights, the Bruins did came back a little bit in the third period, putting up 17 shots in the final frame for a total of 32 shots. But none of them found it past Ottawa netminder Robin Lehner.
Lehner was playing in just his third game of the season tonight, and the first shutout of his NHL career. He does however, improve to 3-0-0 in those games, and has let up just four goals in that time.
"I thought the first two periods were hard for me too because I had to stand around for a bit and then they still had pretty good chances when they got them," Lehner said. "I think the D helped me a lot to see the puck and take away rebounds. I think we had a real good team game tonight."
The Bruins have the opportunity to put February behind them and look towards a March month that has them playing 17 games in 31 days. If they want to make a run before the playoffs, they have to get out of their funk and find ways to string wins together, especially when they are playing nearly every other day.
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