Boston Bruins collapse in 6-5 shootout loss to Red Wings

The Boston Bruins blew two three-goal leads in a 6-5 shootout loss at the Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday, continuing their uneven play that has marked their 2016-17 campaign.

The loss probably won’t help in easing the speculation around the future of longtime coach Claude Julien. This was Boston’s second straight defeat to a team near the bottom of the Eastern Conference – on Monday the Bruins were trounced by the New York Islanders, 4-0.

“We collapsed,” Julien said. “Pretty obvious. It’s just one of those games. We didn’t get the saves when we needed it. We made some mistakes. Gave them some chances. A lot of things went wrong tonight after we took that lead.”

The Bruins are currently 23-19-6 with 52 points, which currently ranks second in the Atlantic Division. But Boston has a .542 points percentage, which ranks below the third-place Toronto Maple Leafs and fourth-place Ottawa Senators. Both teams have 50 points but have played six fewer games than Boston. The Bruins rank 10th out of the 16-team Eastern Conference in terms of points percentage. Boston has not made the playoffs the last two seasons.

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Julien has coached the Bruins since 2007-08 and won the 2011 Stanley Cup with the organization.

Boston started out strong in the first period with two goals by forward Frank Vatrano, and one by defenseman Brandon Carlo. Detroit forward Dylan Larkin cut the lead to 3-1 at the 15:32 mark, but Boston forward Patrice Bergeron scored on the power play at 19:01 of the first to put the Bruins up 4-1.

Then when the second period started, the Red Wings went on a charge. Detroit scored three goals – one by defenseman Xavier Ouellet at the 4:21 mark, another by forward Andreas Athanasiou at the 9:54 mark and then another by forward Tomas Tatar at the 14:36 mark – to tie the game at 4-4.

At the 14:57 mark Bruins defenseman Adam McQuaid scored his first goal of the season to put Boston ahead 5-4, which seemed to get the Bs back on track.

The score stayed that way until Red Wings forward Gustav Nyquist deflected a puck past Boston goaltender Tuukka Rask the 16:56 mark of the third period to tie the game and eventually send it to overtime at 5-5.

The game then went to a shootout where Thomas Vanek and Frans Nielsen buried chances for Detroit. Brad Marchand scored Boston’s only goal.

“We were playing great hockey at both ends of the ice in the first period,” Bergeron said. “We just stopped playing. You have to step on a team’s throat in that spot, and we made mistakes and gave them momentum.”

On Wednesday the Boston Herald posted a story where Julien’s future was addressed by team CEO Charlie Jacobs. In the piece, Jacobs said any decision on Julien would come from general manager Don Sweeney and team president Cam Neely.

“This would be their move if they wanted to make a decision like that,” Jacobs said. “There’s a reason they’re the president and the general manager. If they have to make a decision like this, my job would be to support them.”

In early January, Sweeney indicated to the Boston Globe that he hadn’t ruled out a coaching change for his team. The Bruins have gone 3-4-2 this month.

“I’ve given our coaches a lot of credit for how they’re preparing,” Sweeney said. “We’ve had some slower starts in the last little while. But we’ve been all in together, communicating and seeing where we’re at realistically. Claude’s been receptive to putting younger players in roles that aren’t always comfortable at times. We’re continuing to work at it. I have to look at everything. Ownership would look at me and realize, ‘Well, has Sweeney done enough in the course of his time here?’ We’re sort of in the same place we’ve been, battling. But I think a lot of teams are in that.”

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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper

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