Bruins loss at Blackhawks continues slide out of playoff spot
The Boston Bruins are dropping out of the Stanley Cup Playoff picture again.
Boston made their Sunday game against the Chicago Blackhawks interesting, but ultimately couldn’t come back six-goal deficit.
Their 6-4 loss at Chicago damaged their playoff hopes, keeping them on the outside of the Eastern Conference’s postseason chase. The Bruins have 90 points in 79 games played. The Philadelphia Flyers have 91 points in 77 games and Detroit Red Wings have 91 points in 79 games. The Flyers and Wings are the last two teams in the playoffs.
"This time of year, with what's at stake, we have to be a lot better," forward Patrice Bergeron said. "The focus is definitely what cost us the game early on, by making some mistakes and giving them the space that they wanted and making the plays that they wanted. It's definitely not an excuse, with how many games left and what we're looking at standings-wise."
[Join a Yahoo Daily Fantasy Hockey contest now]
The Bruins’ current slide bring back memories of a year ago where they missed the playoffs off a late run by the Ottawa Senators. Overall they’ve lost seven of nine games. Last year they lost their last three games and blew a seven-point lead they held over the Sens on March 10. Boston won just five of their last 14 games last season.
As of March 12, the Bruins held a 10-point lead on the Flyers, though Philly had three games in hand.
The Blackhawks pushed out to a two-goal lead in the first period. Then in the second forward Patrick Kane completed his hat trick to make the score 6-0 by the 14:16 mark. Jonathan Toews and Artemi Panarin also scored goals during Chicago’s outburst in the second.
Goaltender Tuukka Rask was chased early in the second after allowing four goals on 22 shots on goal.
The Bruins scored two goals in the final minute of the frame to cut the lead to 6-2. Bergeron’s goal at the 2:39 mark of the third cut the lead further to 6-3 and Brad Marchand made the game 6-4 midway through the period. Boston outshot the Blackhawks 17-3 in the third, but ran out of time to finish their comeback.
The only solace for the Bruins is this ends a stretch where they played eight of nine games on the road. They have their last three games at home with one of these contests coming against the Red Wings.
Sports Club Stats lists them as having a 70.5 percent chance of making the playoffs, though their chances dropped 8.9 percent after the defeat.
MORE FROM YAHOO HOCKEY
- - - - - - -
Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper
