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The Bruins did a reasonably good job of shutting down Connor McDavid at 5-on-5 on Thursday night at the Garden, but they learned the hard way that the Oilers captain can beat you in many ways.
McDavid had a primary assist on a power-play goal and scored a vintage he-makes-it-look-easy shorthanded goal to lead the Oilers to a 3-1 victory over the B’s.
“Five-on-five, I think we did a god job. We defended really well, didn’t give them too many chances,” said defenseman Andrew Peeke. “Special teams, they got one on the power play and then the shorthanded goal. Sometimes special teams can win a game that way.”
Meanwhile, the B’s could get very little going at 5-on-5 as they dropped the second contest in a five-game homestand.
Trying to shut down the likes of McDavid and Leon Draisaitl can have a way of limiting your own offensive game as well.
“We knew what their strength is offensively and it was a little bit in the back of our mind that they can beat you one-on-one so you stay a little bit back,” said Pavel Zacha, whose line was tasked with defending the McDavid line. “That’s something we talked about before the game, too, not to be too passive. Especially in the second period, we stayed more passive than we would have liked and we’re going to see that on the video, too. When we had chances to be more aggressive, win some puck battles and that kind of got them in the game.”
Added coach Marco Sturm: “I think we showed them a little too much respect.”
For the fifth game in a row, the Bruins allowed the first goal of the game. Up until that point, they had done a good job of bottling up McDavid, Draisaitl and company either in the neutral zone or just inside the blue line.
But when Mark Kastelic was called for tripping old friend Trent Frederic, the Oilers’ top-ranked power play went to work. Frederic, who was given a nice hand from the crowd when his obligatory welcome-back video was played, very well may have tripped on a fellow Oiler.
Nonetheless, it didn’t take long for Edmonton to cash in. McDavid took a Draisaitl feed at the side of the net and he calmly waited for Ryan Nugent-Hopkins to sneak behind Sean Kuraly at the opposite post. McDavid hit him for a perfect redirect goal for the 1-0 Edmonton lead at 13:38 of the first period.
But the Bruins’ power play isn’t bad, either, and it got them back to even at 16:27 of the first on a nice give-and-go. With Darnell Nurse in the box for tripping Marat Khusnutdinov, Elias Lindholm gained the blue line after taking a neutral zone feed from Zacha and sifted a return pass to Zacha for a clean break-in. Zacha beat Tristan Jarry with a pretty backhander for his ninth goal of the season.
The B’s tempted fate when they took another penalty at the start of the second period – an Peeke high stick on McDavid – but this time they were able to kill it.
Much of the second period was low-event hockey as the B’s continued to do a good job of limiting the big guns’ chances.
But a pair of Edmonton fourth-liners combined to put the Oilers back on top, and against the B’s top line and defense pair no less. Former short-time Bruin Max Jones came out of the corner with the puck and got a shot off that that handcuffed Jeremy Swayman. The rebound went into the danger area where Quinn Hutson – of the Boston University Hutsons – pounced on it and tucked it behind Swayman for his first NHL goal and point. While McDavid flashed his brilliance in the game, that fourth line goal stood up as the GWG.
At the other end, the Oilers were forced to make a goalie change when Jarry appeared to injure himself reaching for a wide shot. In went Calvin Pickard and the B’s tested him a couple of times, but they faced a one-goal deficit heading into the third. Pickard would not be beaten the rest of the way.
The B’s were given a great chance when they got their second power play 30 seconds into the third. But while McDavid couldn’t get loose at 5-on-5, he did so on the penalty kill to drive a dagger of a shorthanded goal into the B’s hearts.
After Pickard was able to just get his glove on a fluttering puck, Nugent-Hopkins gave McDavid the puck and Oiler captain had some giddyup going. He blew past Charlie McAvoy and then beat Swayman with a backhander to make it 3-1 at 1:41 of the third.
The B’s had one last chance to make it a game when Vasily Podkolzin was called for slashing with 5:31 remaining, but the B’s could not pull any closer.
For Sturm, the game serves as an educational tool for his still growing hockey team.
“I like playing teams like that, because they make you better,” said Sturm. “That one mistake (on the Hutson goal), it will make us better, trust me. And that’s a good thing. Unfortunately, we have to learn the hard way but there’s other moments in game, too. For me, it’s a great teaching game.”
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Stephen Conroy
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