One Big Takeaway From Bruins’ Shootout Loss To Resilient Senators

NESN’s Judd Sirott pretty much summed up Saturday’s matchup between the Boston Bruins and Ottawa Senators.

“Francis Charron and Kendrick Nicholson are your referees for this one, and they’ve lost control.”

Sirott wasn’t lying.

Boston and Ottawa competed in an insanely hostile matchup at Canadian Tire Centre, though it wasn’t necessarily needed as the break-neck scoring pace did enough to capture the attention of audiences. Mark Kastelic must not have gotten the message, though. Brady Tkachuk didn’t, either, nor did Brad Marchand, Charlie Coyle, Trent Frederic, Zack Ostapchuk or Tim Stützle.

The Senators got things going in the second period, as they took a few cheap shots after blowing a two-goal lead by the time the first intermission rolled around. Elias Lindholm, in particular, didn’t enjoy eating stick just seconds before contributing to the go-ahead goal and was penalized for vocalizing that displeasure with officials.

*cue the floodgates*

The Bruins were peeved by the inconsistent officiating and ratcheted up their physicality because of it. Kastelic provided yet another moment that will almost certainly be remembered when folks vote for NESN’s 7th Player Award in April — absolutely bundling Ostapchuk.

Morgan Geekie and John Beecher scored surrounding all the chaos, which was enough to carry a one-goal lead into the third period. Vinni Lettieri potted his first goal of the season about halfway through the third period to push the lead, but a pair of goals by Nick Jensen and Josh Norris after Ottawa pulled the goaltender — the latter coming at 19:48 — was enough to push the game to overtime.

Jeremy Swayman spectacularly helped the away side avoid disaster throughout overtime, but they couldn’t score during the shootout to eventually get stuck with the loss.

The Bruins and Senators will meet again on Thursday at TD Garden, with puck drop scheduled for 7 p.m. ET on NESN.