The Boston Bruins gave up two goals while playing on a power play, en route to a poor performance and a 5-1 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Monday night.
Amorphous in front of their fans against one of the worst teams in the NHL, the Bruins fell below the 500 mark, with a record of 8-9-3 at the end of their first 20 games of the season.
In the heavily empty stands, the Boston crowd booed the team profusely in the final moments of the match.
Quebecer Mathieu Olivier, as well as Justin Danforth, both took advantage of Boston’s weakness in retreat to deceive the vigilance of Jeremy Swayman four against five.
In addition to scoring a sixth goal to his record, Olivier also offered a dose of energy to his teammates by engaging in battle against another Quebecer, Jeffrey Viel, early in the match.
James van Riemdsyk’s goal at 19:26 of the first period allowed the Jackets to return to the locker room with a considerable 3-0 lead, while the Boston skaters left the ice to boos.
Charlie Coyle closed the gap with a massive attack at 14:30 of the middle period, but the Bruins were little threat after that.
Proof of head coach Jim Montgomery’s dissatisfaction with the performance of his most important players, he deployed his second wave of power play when his club trailed by two goals in the final third.
Criticized for his lack of involvement and production on a few occasions already, star winger David Pastrnak did not take a single shot on goal, and his differential was minus-2, all in 18:19 of ice time. .
Dmitri Voronkov and Yegor Chinakhov also scored for Columbus (7-9-2), which benefited from a 29-save performance from Elvis Merzlikins.
Boston will play its next game Thursday at home, against the Utah Hockey Club.
