Bruins try to rebound vs. Bobrovsky, Jackets

A week ago, the Boston Bruins extended their points streak to 19 consecutive games.

That now seems like such a long time ago.

The Bruins (42-20-9, 93 points) went 0-3 on a three-game trip to Pittsburgh, Columbus and Winnipeg and return home Saturday night to face the Blue Jackets for the second time in five days. Boston lost 7-4 Tuesday at Columbus, as Boone Jenner netted his first NHL hat trick.

"(Jenner) is just a guy you pull for," Columbus coach John Tortorella said. "He doesn't know how to do it any other way than work hard."

The Bruins wrapped up their trip with a 4-3 loss Thursday in Winnipeg.

"I don't like to lose one in a row, so there's always concern. There's different factors that go into it," Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said. "I think we played three very good hockey teams this week. That's part of it. Part of it is we haven't started on time, so we put ourselves in a hole. We're playing catch up every night. That's a bad formula in the National Hockey League."

The Bruins have fallen behind by two or more goals in five of their past six games, including all three on the road. Columbus led 5-1 just over eight minutes into the second period on Tuesday.

"We shot ourselves in the foot at the start of every game," Bruins center Patrice Bergeron told NHL.com. "Tough to get back in this league, tough to do that every night. We've done it on the tail end of our point streak. But you could tell that we were getting away from what's been good to us, and it's about getting that back.

"A lot of things to look at ... obviously you want results in this league, and we didn't get it on this trip."

The Bruins were without three forwards (Jake DeBrusk, Marcus Johansson and David Pastrnak) and three defensemen (Matt Grzelcyk, Torey Krug and Kevan Miller) for Thursday's game.

"We have really good depth on our team, so that's not an excuse," Bruins forward Joakim Nordstrom told NHL.com. "We have a good enough team to be able to win every night. We're not happy with the way we started the games on this trip. That's something that we have to work on."

The Blue Jackets (40-28-3, 83 points) will be playing the second of back-to-back games after blanking the visiting Carolina Hurricanes 3-0 Friday night, despite being outshot 46-20.

Sergei Bobrovsky made 46 saves as the Blue Jackets tied the Hurricanes for the Eastern Conference's top wild-card berth. Bobrovsky has six shutouts this season and 30 for his NHL career. He set a career high and a franchise record for saves in a shutout.

"I felt good," Bobrovsky told NHL.com. "I saw lots of pucks, lots of shots from the outside. It allows me to get into my game, control my game. I saw the majority of the pucks and controlled the rebounds and played my game."

Blue Jackets forward Brandon Dubinsky said there was little conversation between Bobrovsky and his teammates.

"We leave him alone, especially when he's in a zone like that," Dubinsky told NHL.com. "It would be like a pitcher with a no-hitter. When he has a shutout going, leave him alone and let him do his thing."

--Field Level Media