Bruins team slip back in San Jose

The Bruins [team stats] came to the Left Coast confident that they were back on track and their three-game road trip would be a key building block toward the upcoming playoffs. Instead, the B’s took a step backward last night in a 2-1 loss to the Sharks. San Jose is fighting for its playoff lives and controlled the Bruins quite effectively with a strong defensive effort. Bruins passes were off the mark, there were far too many careless turnovers and the B’s didn’t win nearly enough battles for the puck. It was the fourth straight road loss, their worst stretch since February/March 2009. “We had a lot of players who looked a little sluggish, just didn’t seem to have the same speed and energy we had the last couple of games,” said B’s coach Claude Julien. “It was tough for us to generate any type of attack.” The Sharks put away what for them are a very big two points at 2:17 of the third period when Tyler Seguin turned the puck over high in the San Jose zone. The giveaway caught all three forwards going the wrong way as the Sharks broke out 3-on-2. The finish was a crisp snap from the left circle by Daniel Winnik that beat Tim Thomas [stats] high on the short side and made it 2-0. The Bruins finally got on the board with 4:15 left when Zdeno Chara (No. 11) ventured deep and, from beyond the goal line left of the net, banked the puck in off goalie Antti Niemi. “We’re having a hard time picking up momentum, and keeping it for long periods of time,” said Thomas. “We proved recently what kind of game we can play. If you asked me before this game I would have thought we’d carry it over. “I thought after our last game we had turned a corner. Hopefully we still have.” After solid back-to-back wins at home against Philadelphia and Toronto, the B’s were optimistic they had finally moved beyond the dull and messy play they exhibited too frequently the last few months. That was gone after just a few hours last night Predictably, the Sharks opened with a big push, and grabbed a quick lead. The goal was more a result of B’s errors. The play began with Lucic trying to make a breakout pass from the left side of the zone, but instead passing the puck directly to Joe Thornton in the high slot. Thomas stopped his ex-teammate’s shot from the slot. But Thornton ended up with the puck behind the net, waited patiently, and then slipped a pass out front to Patrick Marleau. Thomas made a nice stop of Marleau’s in-close bid, but left a tasty rebound for Joe Pavelski, who had an easy tap-in from the right goalmouth. The Sharks nearly made it 2-0 a few minutes later, but Thomas made a stop on Dan Boyle’s point shot and the puck skipped up off the crossbar and out. The Bruins managed only four shots in the second period, nine for 40 minutes, although Lucic did deflect a David Krejci off the crossbar. “We came in and played a desperate team,” said forward Shawn Thornton. “They played that way. We just weren’t desperate enough.”