What we learned: Chad Johnson, Flames frustrate Bruins
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Without Zdeno Chara for the second straight night, defensive miscues cost the Black and Gold another two points. The effort surely wasn’t the Bruins’ best, but the B’s absolutely missed their captain in this one.
Once again they were lost in their own end at times and were left scrambling. Both of Calgary’s goals could easily have been preventable and that made out to be the difference in the Bruins 2-1 loss to the Flames Friday night at the TD Garden.
The team was visibly frustrated on the ice and after the loss as well. From the disallowed goal to the chippy play, the Bruins were not too pleased with many aspects of Friday’s loss.
Here is what we learned as the Bruins suffer their fourth loss in the last five games.
Anton Khudobin solid in return
Returning to the Boston after a brief conditioning stint in Providence, Anton Khudobin gave his team exactly what they needed from their backup goalie, unfortunately for Khudobin and the Bruins, the rest of the team couldn’t pick the goaltender up.
Khudobin feels good and is happy to be back where he hopes to help the team.
“No, no, I’m totally fine. Feel pretty good. So nothing really bothers me. I am in good shape and I am moving pretty well and I feel the puck and like I said I feel pretty good,” Khudobin said after his first start with the big club since October 22nd. “The only thing that bothers me is I have three losses, I want that magic W.”
With the loss, the Bruins now fall to 0-6 with anyone not named Tuukka Rask between the pipes. Khudobin made some big saves to keep the Bruins in the game and shouldn’t be blamed for the two goals scored by the Flames.
David Pastrnak strikes again
For the second time in as many games since returning from an injury that caused him to miss three games, Pastrnak was the lone Bruins’ goal scorer. Notching his team-leading 12th goal of the season, Pastrnak continues to pump life into the Bruins offense.
Claude Julien not happy with disallowed goal
Down 1-0 in the second period, it appeared that the Bruins had scored the tying goal. With Flames goalie Chad Johnson very much out of his crease, a fore-checking Brad Marchand collided with Flames’ captain Mark Giordano who interfered with Johnson, allowing Patrice Bergeron to score from an odd angle into the open goal.
After further review, the goal was disallowed. Meeting the media following the loss, head coach Claude Julien was not too happy with the decision.
“Well you obviously saw that I wasn’t happy with it. When you dump the puck in, forecheck, and all night long they kept skating in front of our forecheck, and that’s exactly what they did to Marchy [Marchand], which he is allowed to do,” Julien said during his postgame press conference. “Just because your goaltender is out of his net and happens to be out in the way, I don’t think that should have been called back.”
Chad Johnson steals the show
The Bruins knew getting pucks past former teammate Chad Johnson would be no easy task. Johnson has won five of his last six starts allowing just seven goals in that span. With Brian Elliott struggling, Johnson is making the most of his opportunity. Stopping 34 of the 35 shots he saw, including some big pad saves on golden Bruins’ scoring chances, Johnson frustrated the Bruins all night long.