The weakened Boston Bruins suffered a significant home defeat against the New York Rangers in the NHL on Black Friday. In the 2:6 defeat at the TD Garden, the team from Massachusetts, coached by the German Marco Sturm, showed an “unacceptable performance” for large parts. The mass was said after just 40 minutes.
Artemi Panarin (4th minute) and Carson Soucy (13th) quickly set the course for an away win against the Bruins, who had to make do without David Pastrnak, Pavel Zacha and Matěj Blümel. Mika Zibanejad secured the preliminary decision in a one-sided game with a double strike in the majority (35th and 36th).
Although Casey Mittelstadt (45th) and Morgan Geekie (46th) gave the TD Garden hope again, at least for a short time, there was no longer any tension. Alexis Lafrenière with an empty netter (57th) and Vladislav Gavrikov just half a minute later ensured the befitting success of the New Yorkers, who left the ice as winners for the third time in a row.
Marco Sturm counts the Bruins second line
“Of course we know what quality we had to make do without today, but at least for me, games like this are a chance for a lot of players to prove themselves and take advantage of their chance,” explained goalscorer Geekie after the game and admitted: “I think that at the start of the game we were not present in the entire lineup. That was simply not an acceptable performance today.”
The fact that the Bruins let themselves be shot down like this without three top performers was “no excuse,” Sturm made it clear: “I think that in order to survive such games and phases in which you have a lot of injuries, many players have to take a step forward. And many players didn’t do that today.”
A small consolation for the Bruins was the comeback of Mittelstadt, who was back on the ice for the first time since November 6th after a lower body injury and was able to score a goal straight away. “Of course you want to win, but it was definitely a good feeling to be there again,” said the American.