BOSTON -- It was one of those kinds of days for Tyler Seguin.
The 20-year-old was one of the best forwards on the ice for the Bruins and seemed to be creating most of the best offensive chances for the Black and Gold, but he just couldnt slap the finishing touch on any of the plays.
So Seguin didnt factor into any of the offense in the Bs 2-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins, and a fat upper lip added injury to insult from a Pascal Dupuis high stick to the mouth in the second period. But Seguin was still working hard, creating chances and generating offense in a tangible way that coincided with many of his teammates beginning to put the effort in as well.
It would appear Seguin and the Bruins are getting tired of their alternating pattern of wins and losses, and its showing on the ice. The effort and desire is coming back, and now it comes down to finishing touch returning to skill players like Seguin.
When youre struggling you dont just come out the next night and everything is fixed. Its the same thing when youre winning. Your play is starting to slip, but youre still winning hockey games before it catches up, said Claude Julien. The same thing is going to happen in reverse. Were going to play some decent games and at the end of the night you look at what has happened and were still on the losing end of it.
But you got to start building on the positive. Tonight I thought our effort was better, our focus was better and there were a couple of areas we have to continue to improve on. But if our guys go back out there tomorrow night and give that same effort, were going to turn this around.
The Bruins went on a four-minute power play following the high-sticking infraction, but couldnt score in an afternoon of fruitless offensive offerings. Seguin said he was fine following the game aside from some sore teeth, but was looking back with regret on a couple of the missed chances from a one-goal game. There was a first period setup for a one-timer from Patrice Bergeron that was served on a platter for Seguin, and he got a little too much of the puck while firing the shoot far over the open nets crossbar.
Boston Bruins
Find the latest Boston Bruins news, highlights, analysis and more with NBC Sports Boston.
Seguin made a couple of feathery passes to set up Brad Marchand and Joe Corvo for scoring chanceswith the Corvo pass actually coming during the power play for the high stick against No. 19but his teammates couldnt finish off the play.
Then there was Seguins partial breakaway in the third period when he darted and dangled through the heart of the Pittsburgh defense, but Marc Andre-Fleury did a masterful job of standing tall with the game on the line. That save represented one of Bostons best scoring chances in the last few minutes of the third period, and it was the first thing Seguin was thinking about after the game.
Personally I thought I had a few chances and I think as a line we definitely had a couple chances there. There were a couple of semi partial breakaways, you know, in tight, said Seguin. Were just not finishing right now. Hopefully we can pop a couple there in Washington tomorrow and get these goals in bunches going.
Seguin showed he was ready to get things going on Saturday afternoon, and theres no reason to think he cant carry that over into Sunday with the team badly in need of his explosive offense.