GOLD STAR: Boone Jenner finished with a couple of goals, and was the best player on the ice for either team. He finished with five shots on net and 10 shot attempts overall in 20 minutes of ice time, was all around the net wreaking havoc and scored a very demoralizing goal just 21 seconds into the second period. The Bruins defense really had no answers for that entire line, and Jenner had a nice all-around effort with three hits, three takeaways and a blocked shot to go with all the scoring and offensive production.
BLACK EYE: Jonas Gustavsson has been pretty good for the Bruins this season as their backup netminder, but he wasn’t very sharp in a loss to the Blue Jackets where he needed to be behind a porous, mistake-prone defense. Instead he allowed five goals on 34 shots, coughed up a number of troublesome rebounds around the net and simply made the wrong reads on a number of shot attempts from the Blue Jackets. Clearly plenty of the blame should also be assigned to the defense that was allowing odd man rushes like they were going out of style, but Gustavsson probably had his worst game as a member of the Bruins. The fact that Columbus hit four posts indicated just how much worse this could have been than the six goals allowed.
TURNING POINT: The Bruins battled to a 1-1 tie after the first 20 minutes of action, and could have come out with a renewed sense of energy after they were lucky enough to see the Blue Jackets hit a couple of posts to keep them in the game. Instead they allowed another goal just 21 seconds into the second period on Boone Jenner’s second of the night, and collapsed while being outshot by a 15-8 margin in the middle 20 minutes of the game. The Bruins have been poor many times this season in the second period, and this was just another shining example.
HONORABLE MENTION: Give Matt Beleskey credit: he was one of the Bruins that was fighting the good fight throughout the game. Beleskey scored a pair of goals while paying the price around the net and redirecting point shots, had a couple of hits while playing the physical game and had five shot attempts in 18:33 of ice time. The two goals gives Beleskey 11 on the season, and puts him on pace to get the 15-20 goals for the season that will put him right in the range that the Bruins expected to get out of him when they signed him last summer. I don’t know if it’s a compliment or not, but Beleskey has been a player that almost always stands out for still playing hard when others on the team just seem to wilt under the unfavorable conditions.
BY THE NUMBERS: 7 – the number of goals for Loui Eriksson in the last seven games as he clearly isn’t getting distracted by his name being bandied about in potential deals around the trade deadline.
QUOTE TO NOTE: “It’s not good enough. We need to play much better when we’re coming home, and playing in front of our fans. I think no one is happy about how we’re playing right now at home, and that’s something we need to address, and get better as we go along here.” – Loui Eriksson, on a Bruins team that’s dropped to 12-15-3 this season on home ice.