BOSTON – The captain didn’t help right the ship for the Bruins in Game 4 at the Garden Friday night. Early on, he looked as if he might actually sink it.


For the second consecutive game, the Bruins fell behind 2-0 early and captain Zdeno Chara deserved his share of the blame.


After Rick Nash lost the puck at center ice, Tampa Bay’s Brayden Point collected it and skated into the Bruins zone. He raced in between Chara and Charlie McAvoy and he got off a [...]

BILL DOYLE The Worcester Telegram & Gazette

BOSTON – The captain didn’t help right the ship for the Bruins in Game 4 at the Garden Friday night. Early on, he looked as if he might actually sink it.

For the second consecutive game, the Bruins fell behind 2-0 early and captain Zdeno Chara deserved his share of the blame.

After Rick Nash lost the puck at center ice, Tampa Bay’s Brayden Point collected it and skated into the Bruins zone. He raced in between Chara and Charlie McAvoy and he got off a shot that Tuukka Rask couldn’t contain. Point scored on the rebound to give the Lightning a 1-0 lead at 4:36.

Bruins fans must have thought, “Not again.”

A little while later, the Bruins were within 19 seconds off killing off Nash’s tripping penalty against Steven Stamkos when Chara backhanded a bouncing pass over the glass for a delay of game penalty.

“It was one of those that you want to clear it,” Chara said. “Obviously, you aim for the center of the ice and it just slips and goes over the glass.”

Nitika Kucherov doubled the Lightning lead to 2-0 with a slap shot from the left circle 55 seconds into Chara’s penalty at 9:53.

The Bruins rallied to take the lead, 3-2, in the third, but they fell on Dan Girardi’s goal at 3:18 of overtime that deflected off the skate of Brian Gionta. Tampa took a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference playoff series. Game 5 will be at 3 p.m. Sunday in Tampa.

“We’re going to battle hard,” Chara said. “It’s not ideal position. Obviously, we know that, but we can battle.”

In Game 3, it took Tampa Bay only 3:19 to grab a 2-0 lead during a 4-1 victory. The Bruins never recovered in Game 3, but they did in Game 4. David Pastrnak scored on the power play to make it 2-1 later in the first period and he drew a tripping penalty early in the second on Tyler Johnson that led to Patrice Bergeron’s power-play goal that tied it, 2-2. Chara blocked a shot that led to Bergeron’s shorthanded goal with 13:24 left to put the Bruins on top, 3-2.

Kucherov appeared to pull down McAvoy to the left of Rask, but no penalty was called and Stamkos ended up tying it, 3-3, with 7:04 remaining in the third.

“I’m coming around,” McAvoy said, “trying to get my feet moving and make a play and I wasn’t able to.”

McAvoy thought a penalty should have been called, but he didn’t actually say that.

“I know what I feel, but I’m not going to comment on it,” he said.

So the Bruins rallied to overcome a 2-0 deficit, only to have the game tied on a goal they feel shouldn’t have happened and then lose in OT. They were frustrated.

“Yeah, very,” McAvoy said. “We battled back. We’re down 2-0. Not where we wanted to be, but that’s where we were. A lot of heart in this room. We battle all the way back and we’re up, 3-2, and we feel like we’re in a very, very good position and to see it slip away the way it did, it (stinks). It’s unfortunate really.”

Chara expected a penalty to be called and as captain he didn’t receive an explanation from the officials on why one wasn’t called.

“Not really, I didn’t,” he said. “That’s the way it is. They made a decision and we have to live with it. Again, I haven’t seen it yet in the replay, but I honestly thought that would be called.”

“We seem to be going down this road a lot lately,” Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said, “with the non-calls. It looked like he reached around and pulled him down. Charlie is a strong guy, but it wasn’t called and that’s that. There’s nothing you can do about it after. You have to keep playing and we did. They made the first play in overtime.”

Chara turned 41 in March and this is his 20th NHL season, his 12th with the Bruins. He’s no longer the dominant player who won the Norris Trophy in 2009 as the NHL’s top defenseman and who has been a first- or second-team All-Star seven times, but he’s still one of Boston’s top blue-liners and the Bruins desperately need him to play well. That’s what made his two early mistakes so glaring.

Yes, Chara’s old, but he entered the night with a team-high, plus-minus rating of plus-eight and he averaged 23:29 of ice time, second to McAvoy’s 23:32.

McAvoy, the 20-year-old rookie, will likely assume more of the role as the team’s top defenseman next season, but Chara will continue to be an important part of the team.

Chara and the other defensemen could become even more important because Torey Krug left with 8:25 left in the third period with an apparent ankle injury. Cassidy said he’d be reevaluated on Saturday.

 

Contact Bill Doyle at william.doyle@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @BillDoyle15