Halloween is one week from today and the Boston Bruins are doing their best imitation of movie theater turnstiles. On Tuesday night they got bitch-slapped by the Nashville Predators and tonight they got annihilated by the Dallas Stars. Once again Jeremy Swayman and the Bruins defense got their teeth kicked in but at least they scored goals this time. David Pastrnak scored first to give the Bruins the lead but their incompetence on the penalty kill reared its ugly head. Matt Duchene scored to tie up the game after one period but Dallas scored THREE consecutive power play goals in the second period. The last goal by none other than old buddy Tyler Seguin. Justin Brazeau scored to inch the Bruins closer but Boston failed to get any closer at the end of the second period and the entirety of the third period. Roope Hintz scored an empty net goal as the Stars blasted the Bruins 5-2 at TD Garden.
The Stars wasted no time peppering Jeremy Swayman in the Bruins net as Thomas Harley's blast beat him clean, but bounced off the post. Swayman fell on it but that set the tone for the first period. Morgan Geekie had a wide open shot 2:33 into the game but Stars goalie Casey DeSmith made the save. Down the other end, Logan Stankoven shot the puck on net. Roope Hintz tried to jam it in but Swayman made the save. The Bruins tried to jam the puck in seven minutes into the period but DeSmith kept it out of the net. Then Ilya Lyubushkin was sent to the box for hooking. The Bruins failed to score on the power play as Brad Marchand was denied at the door-step. Marchand was called for high sticking with 9:31 left in the period but then Jamie Benn got two minutes for slashing and 2 minutes for unsportsmanlike conduct 46 seconds later. While in the four on four, Matt Poitras collected the puck behind the net and sent it to Pastrnak who's one timer beat DeSmith to put the Bruins on the board. While on the power play...the Bruins did nothing. Worse, Wyatt Johnston had a wide open breakaway that Swayman stopped. Disaster struck with 3:40 left in the first as Harley passed to Seguin who dished it to Matt Duchene. Duchene scored to tie the game as fans thought Swayman should have had that one. That was it for the period as the game was tied 1-1 heading to intermission.
Duchene scores to tie it
The Bruins wasted no time blowing the game in the second period as Pastrnak was sent to the box for hooking just 11 seconds into the period on a breakaway attempt by Hintz. John Beecher failed to clear the puck and Miro Heiskanen passed down low to Benn. Benn threw the puck in front and Jason Robertson scored the power play goal to put the Stars on top just 31 seconds into the period. Just three minutes later, Parker Wotherspoon was bagged for an interference. Mason Marchment passed the puck to Matt Duchane. Duchane passed it over to Logan Stankoven. Stankoven went untouched to the Bruins net and scored. Hampus Lindholm never moved on the play and it was 3-1 Stars just 4:57 into the period. Things got worse when four minutes later, Pastrnak got whistled for tripping. On the power play, Duchane got knocked off the puck but Marchment scooped it up. He passed to a wide open Tyler Seguin who fired past Swayman for a soft goal to essentially end the game 8:59 into the second period. Finally a penalty went the Bruins way when Sam Steel was called for hooking 9:14 into the period. A minute later on the power play, Charlie McAvoy shot the puck off of DeSmith. Pastrnak had a wide open net but failed to put it in. Finally, Morgan Geekie won a puck battle behind the net and sent it to Trent Frederic. He passed it in front to Justin Brazeau who scored his first goal of the season to cut the lead in half with 9:19 left in the period. With 30 seconds left, Johnston was drilled by Zadorov to stop a partial breakaway. The Bruins were still trailing 4-2 going into intermission.
Brazeau gets the Bruins closer
The tone was set 1:27 into the period when Pavel Zacha fired on net and the rebound went to Geekie. Geekie failed to put it in and the puck was cleared. Halfway through the period, Brazeau was denied in the front of the net. With 7:38 left, McAvoy entered the zone, passed to Zacha who passed to Poitras. Poitras shot but DeSmith saved it. With 3 minutes left, Bruins coach Jim Montgomery pulled Swayman. The Bruins controlled the puck, shooting at DeSmith unsuccessfully and Seguin corralled it. McAvoy tripped and fell, allowing Hintz to hit the empty net goal to end the game. The Stars had embarrassed the Bruins 5-2.
Seguin gets another W
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Once again the Bruins get beat up by Tyler Seguin and the Stars. Just for arguments sake, Matt Fraser scored 3 goals in Boston, Reilly Smith scored 33, Joseph Morrow scored two and Louie Eriksson scored 62. That's 100 combined. Seguin had 74 in his first two years in Dallas alone. To say the 2013-15 off-seasons were unmitigated disasters is putting it lightly. Reilly Smith was a cap casualty but the Seguin trade still haunts the Bruins as they were always one guy short. This game the Bruins defense was pathetic and Swayman let in some softies as well. The penalty kill may as well have just gave the Stars the goal without playing the 2 minutes and save everyone the trouble. This was a terrible effort by the Bruins after following their worst game of the season against Nashville. Hopefully its just early season blues because this can't continue or the natives are going to get restless. The Bruins are back in action Saturday night in a divisional showdown against the Toronto Maple Leafs. The game begins at 7:00 PM at TD Garden.
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