Takeaways From Bruins Loss to Canadiens

The Boston Bruins snapped their four-game win streak with a 5-2 loss to the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday night at TD Garden. 

The Canadiens offense struck early and the Bruins got themselves into too big of a deficit despite attempting a late comeback attempt.

Below are three takeaways from the loss.

Montreal’s Defense Impressed

Not only was Montreal’s offense hot from the start, the team’s defense also put up an impressive performance in the 5-2 victory. As a team, the Canadiens tallied 23 blocked shots in the contest compared to the Bruins’ six. Defenseman Kaiden Guhle led the team with five of the 23. In total, Montreal had 13 players record at least once block and six players with multiple.

Casey Mittelstadt Was Bruins Offense

Bruins forward Casey Mittelstadt had the only offensive production for Boston. In the game, Mittelstadt scored the Bruins’ only two goals of the night- the first at 14:53 of the second and the other at 0:53 of the third. 

Forward Elias Lindholm assisted on both goals while defenseman Nikita Zadorov picked up an assist on the first goal and defenseman Will Borgen had one on the second. 

With the performance, Mittelstadt now has seven goals and five assists for 12 points this season.

Jeremy Swayman Has Worst Game of Season

Bruins forward Jeremy Swayman had his worst game of the season in the loss on Thursday night. In the outing, Swayman allowed four of Montreal’s five goals and was pulled halfway through the second period for Michael DiPietro. 

Swayman made 13 saves in the contest for a .765 save percentage, his worst of the season. It was also the fourth time this season Swayman has allowed four goals. 

Swayman now has a 2.42 goals against average, a .913 save percentage, and a 9-4-1 record in 14 games played this season.