Review: Bruins overwhelmed by Stars 5-2

Penalties, turnovers and no 5-on-5 offense gave the Boston Bruins a 5-2 loss to the Dallas Stars at TD Garden on Thursday.

After a good start, the Bruins dug themselves into a hole early in the second period, allowing the Stars to score three power play goals.

“When you're results-oriented, you tend to take too many penalties because you get frustrated easily, and you tend to turn the puck over a lot because you don't want to work for the offense,” Jim Montgomery said. “You want to get results right away, and that attitude … is causing some problems right now.”

Here are the highlights of the game:

First period:

On 4-on-4 play, Matt Poitras found David Pastrnak for a one-timer past Casey DeSmith at 11:57 of the first period. 1-0 Bruins.

As Thomas Harley entered the zone, he hit Tyler Seguin with a pass, who then hit Matt Duchene with a short feed into the high slot. Duchene carried the puck to the left circle where he let a wrist shot fly past Swayman at 16:20 of the first period. 1:1 game.

Second period:

David Pastrnak took a penalty just 11 seconds into the second. Then, 20 seconds into the Stars' power play, Robertson beat Swayman's blocker in the slot, 31 seconds into the second period. 2-1 stars.

Just over three minutes later, Parker Wotherspoon was called for interference, which led to Logan Stankoven firing a shot from the slot past Swayman on the next power play at 4:57 of the second period. 3-1 stars.

Pastrnak headed his second penalty of the quarter back into the box. Mason Marchment sent a pass to Seguin inside the right circle, where he fired a wrist shot just under the crossbar at 8:59 of the second period for the Stars' third power play goal of the night. 4-1 stars.

The Bruins took advantage of their next power play and scored when Justin Brazeau found the rebound off a Trent Frederic basket 10:41 into the second period. 4:2 game.

Third period:

Roope Hintz added an unanswered goal at 17:58 of the third period. Final result: 5-2 stars.

Game notes

• There's not much else to do tonight other than the Bruins need to stop taking so many penalties every game. You can't let three power play goals come your way, especially not in the second period. “It's the most difficult time to make changes in the penalty kill,” Montgomery said after the game.
• Montgomery attributed the increasing penalties to the team's “attitude,” which is currently looking for results and not focusing on habits and details. He said that because of this it leads to penalties and turnovers as the lineup is not ready to work.
• The Bruins took five penalties tonight, which is about the majority of penalties they've taken in almost every game. Many of these are unnecessary racket violations due to undisciplined play.
• After the game, David Pastrnak acknowledged his two penalty minutes and explained that it was rather uncharacteristic of him to get two in one game – and two so quickly – and to have already accumulated 14 penalty minutes in just eight games (that's already one third of his penalty minutes). with in 82 games last year). He said he needs to take better care of his bat so he doesn't put the Bruins in as many shorthanded situations because of his actions.
• But Pastrnak also added that it was a team-wide issue heading into the season. After the game he said that the boys were having a hard time keeping track. “Everyone is fighting,” he said. “It's still early, but we know we have to get a lot better. I think that’s why you can see a little bit of frustration in the team because we expect a high standard here with the Spoke B.”
• Montgomery rearranged the lines again, but it didn't really make much of a difference. The Bruins are still struggling to generate offense at even strength. The Bruins' two goals came on 4-on-4 play and on the power play.
• If there was a silver lining, Brazeau looked good after being a healthy scratch in two of the three away games. He had a net presence and that paid off on the power play. He could have had another one because he kept crashing into the net.
• The Bruins continue their home opener on Saturday, October 26th when they host the Toronto Maple Leafs for an Original Six matchup at 7 p.m