Bruins' Season on the Brink After Game 4 Loss

BostonBruins.com - For the first time in nearly 15 months, a Bruins' season is on the brink. The Black & Gold dropped their third straight on Saturday afternoon, falling to the Tampa Bay Lightning, 3-1, in Game 5 and now face a 3-1 deficit in their best-of-seven second-round series.
"We just have to stay with it," said Charlie Coyle. "They have a good goaltender over there. It's a great team. They're here for a reason. We have to find a way. Get traffic in front. Get to the dirty areas. I think we can do a little more of that. It's going to be, second, third, fourth efforts out there and a rebound goal, that's the way we have to play. They're a good team, they're good in front of their net. So, we have to battle."
Boston were trailing, 3-0 - on two goals from Ondrej Palat and a power-play marker by Victor Hedman - entering the third period, and Jake DeBrusk's power-play goal at 7:04 of the final frame was not nearly enough to jumpstart a Bruins comeback.

"It's not where we want to be, backs against the wall," said DeBrusk. "I think the mindset that we preach throughout the year - it's perfect for this time - is just focus on the next shift. Focus on the next shift and win your battles. Beat the guy across from you."
The Bruins now must win three in a row to advance to the Eastern Conference Final. They are 0-23 all-time when facing a 3-1 series deficit, while Tampa is 5-0 all-time with a 3-1 series lead.
"It's all a mentality," said Coyle. "We have to regroup and focus on one game at a time. People have been in worse situations and come out on top. We just have to take it one game at a time. Focus on that next game. That is all we can control right now.
"Come back and the mindset is to play a better game. There are some things we can work on and look at, some video. But just the mindset to focus on that next one and get a win."

Ritchie Penalized

Tampa's third goal was a game changer. The Lightning made it 3-0 with 1:56 to go in the second period and less than 30 seconds remaining on a five-minute power play, which was assessed after a review of Nick Ritchie's hit on Yanni Gourde.
"I had no intent to put a guy on the ice and inure anybody," said Ritchie. "I was just finishing my hit, thought I did a good job keeping my arms down and it was shoulder to shoulder. Maybe he wasn't expecting it and he just got rid of the puck. I'm just playing my game and that's part of it, sometimes stuff like that happens."
Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy made it clear following the game that he did not agree with the severity of the penalty.
"There was no call," said Cassidy. "He's finishing a check, it happens all the time. He played through a player's shoulder as I saw it. Shoulder-to-shoulder hard. I don't know if the explanation was it was late, or it was a 225-pound man hits a 170-pound man and that's why the penalty is called.
"I thought [Cedric] Paquette did the same thing, if not worse, to [Karson] Kuhlman in the first period. The standard is set. That's what officials do, they set the standard and the players adjust to it and adapt to it game in and game out.
"I thought he did a good job. That's what he's asked to do, be hard on people, stick up for your teammates, go to the net, score dirty goals, make plays off the wall, all those things. So that hit was part of the job description and he did it.
"They reversed the call and at the end of the day, it went against us. We want Ritch to be physical, not reckless, and that's what we thought it was, but it didn't work out that way."

Get to the Net

The Bruins were particularly frustrated with their lack of finish and overall opportunties, admitting that - despite registering 30 shots on goal - they did not get enough to the net.
"How many shots did we have today? I don't even know," said Krejci, who registered one shot in 21:10 of ice time. "We just have to get the shots through. There's no excuse for it. Forwards, we have to get to the net, find the shooting lanes. All those things. You know, you work in practice and we have to show it in a game. We have to get better at it."