Bruins Suffer First Home Regulation Loss of Season

BOSTON - There is a first time for everything - even for this Bruins team.
Some three months into the season, and on the night the Black & Gold hit the official midway point of the 2022-23 campaign, Boston suffered its first home regulation loss with a 3-0 setback to the Seattle Kraken at TD Garden. The Bruins, who also saw their 14-game point streak snapped, had not lost in regulation on home ice since April 14, 2022, against Ottawa.

"It's our first [regulation] loss at home. It's our 23rd game of the year [at home]. I guess we're fortunate in one way," said coach Jim Montgomery. "We're not happy about how we played, and we'll address it [Friday], we'll regroup, and we'll be better Saturday night [against Toronto].
"I don't think at any point we were negative. I felt there was a belief the whole time that we were gonna comeback. The biggest difference I noticed from previous games was in the third period we didn't have the charge in us, so that just tells me our batteries are low."
The Bruins were playing their first game back from a six-day swing through California that came on the heels of a weekend of festivities at Fenway Park for the Winter Classic. With four days between games and just one practice since their victory in Anaheim on Sunday night, Montgomery could sense some mental fatigue within his group.
"Not physical, mental," said Montgomery. "There was guys wide open…we make a lot of plays throughout the year and we weren't seeing those plays. We were not a second, but two seconds, late and then we were trying to force the plays which led to a lot of turnovers and them being able to transition on us and us being one and done in the offensive zone.
"That doesn't usually happen, and I think the mental fatigue, we were just a little bit lazy with our offense and unfortunately they were in the right spots and went the other way on us."
The Kraken - now winners of seven consecutive games, six of which have come on their current road trip - used their speed to limit Boston, particularly in their own end of the ice, making it difficult for the Bruins to generate much offensively to beat Martin Jones (27 saves) as they were shutout for the first time this season.
"Their team structure is excellent," said Montgomery. "I thought their speed defensively gave us a lot of problems. On the forecheck, in the neutral zone, especially in the D-Zone. We were kinda one and done in the offensive zone. I think that was a credit to how fast they played defensively."

Seattle struck first at 7:14 of the first when Brandon Tanev deflected a Daniel Sprong shot from a sharp angle by Linus Ullmark. Eeli Tolvanen later doubled the Kraken's lead with just 39 seconds to play in the second with a spin around wrister from the slot that clanked off the post and under the crossbar. Jaden Schwartz added an empty-netter 1:50 to go.
"I just didn't think we were as sharp tonight," said Brandon Carlo. "Overall, with all of the areas of our game I feel like we were moving the puck a bit slower than we usually do from the D zone, and we weren't winning our 1-on-1 battles as much throughout the neutral zone. That's not a great recipe and it's something that we haven't done all year. I think it's a great learning opportunity and hopefully we'll learn from that and not allow it to happen again.
"I think as professionals we need to be ready to go every night…you can blame some things on the travel or whatnot - I don't find those much as excuses because we're all pros here and every team has to go through it so those are the battles we have to face."
Despite the loss, the Bruins finished the first half at a sensational 32-5-4, a record that they can even admit is one they never could have predicted.
"It's been so fun, I think everybody in this group is having a great time," said Carlo. "It's pretty impressive what we have been able to do, but we're keeping our focus on certain things, like we talk about with our process and we talk about focusing on the day to day and our process and that's what got us to this point so hopefully it will continue to carry us."

Wait, There's More

• Joona Koppanen made his NHL debut as the fourth-line center between Nick Foligno and Tomas Nosek. The 24-year-old landed one shot on goal and two hits to go along with a minus-1 rating in 8:50 of ice time. Koppanen won 71% of his faceoffs, contributing to a dominant night for the Bruins at the dot, where they won 73% of the draws. "It was an awesome experience, of course," he said. "I've been working hard for many years now, and kind of like a dream coming true. It would be nice to win of course, but game is still game, so it's nice to get that in…I think I was prepared well. Maybe I was a little nervous in the early, so that took a little time to get a couple of shifts in, and I was better after that."
• Montgomery did not get the spark he was hoping for when he juggled the lines in the second period, leading to him pulling Ullmark with around five minutes to play. "That's why I pulled the goalie as early as I did," he said. "We had no urgency to our game and we had some great looks there but unfortunately it didn't work. We were missing the 'it' factor tonight that we've had all year."