Bruins Notes: Boston Confident Wins, Points Will Come Down Stretch

The Boston Bruins are winless in five straight games.

The New York Islanders ended their own four-game losing skid by defeating the Bruins, 2-1, on Thursday night at TD Garden.

Despite the loss, the Black and Gold are choosing to look at what they did right instead of stewing in frustration as they head out on the road for two games.

“I like the way we were just pounding pucks,” Bruins captain Brad Marchand told reporters, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “Sometimes you get on the road, you sit back a little bit. But, if we continue to pound pucks the way we did, play below the goal line and get pucks to the net, we’re going to be a good team. We just got to keep building that.”

The Bruins had the ice tilted in their favor all night, outshooting the Islanders, 39-20, in the contest. However, New York goaltender Ilya Sorokin stopped pretty much everything that came toward his crease.

“It just shows how tight the margins are right. now,” Marchand said. “This time of year, everything tightens up and it just shows that little mistakes cost games.

“We really have to limit the amount of mistakes we make. We have two pretty good games here that we lost and we should have come away with some points, but again, it’s just margins so remember that moving forward.”

The Bruins admitted frustration after failing to earn a win against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday night after holding a 3-0 lead. Marchand clarified that the feeling of frustration is not ongoing.

“I don’t think that we feel frustrated all the time,” Marchand said. “I think there’s moments where you’re frustrated that (you) didn’t get the outcome you wanted or maybe we didn’t play to our standard. But, we don’t come to the rink every day frustrated.

“Obviously, this is disappointing that we had a good game and we didn’t get the points we would have liked, but there’s games where we didn’t play well at all and got points. That’s just the way the game goes. I wouldn’t say we’re super frustrated.”

Here are more notes from Thursday’s Bruins-Islanders game:

— David Pastrnak extended his point streak to 16 games with his 31st goal of the season and 800th career point midway through the third period. He has 14 goals and 17 assists for 31 points in that span.

Pastrnak currently holds the longest point streak in the league. He also made history by tying Robert Lang and Jaromir Jagr for the longest point streaks for Czechia-born players in NHL history.

“I would give (up) the point streak for the wins,” Pastrnak told reporters as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “I play a team sport. I just wanted a dub and get back on a winning streak. I’m not focusing on anything else other than our team game right now and obviously doing my best to help the team, but (the point streak) that’s not my focus, honestly.”

— The Bruins lost another player to injury when Matthew Poitras exited the game with a lower-body injury late in the second period. Interim head coach Joe Sacco didn’t have an update on the 20-year-old center after the game.

The injuries have piled up for Boston with Trent Frederic (lower-body), Charlie McAvoy (upper-body) and Hampus Lindholm (lower-body) all sidelined as the Bruins battle for a playoff spot.

— Jeremy Swayman made his first start against the Islanders this season. The Bruins No.1 netminder stopped 18 of 20 shots he faced in the loss and fell to 18-19-6 overall this season.

“We have to take pauses and move forward,” Swayman told reporters, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “We’ve won games that we shouldn’t have. We lost games that we should have won. So, it’s something that we need to build on and just keep a confident mindset because we are playing good hockey and the bounces will come, the goals will come and the points will come.”

— Boston is at risk of matching its longest losing streak of the season when the Bruins travel to Pittsburg to face the Penguins on Saturday afternoon. Puck drop from PPG Paints Arena is scheduled for 3 p.m. ET, and will air on ABC.