What is it with the Bruins and the 3-0 lead?
In a game, and in a series, it spelled doom for the Bruins last spring.
And while maybe the stakes weren’t quite as high Monday night in New York, coughing up a 3-0 lead in the second period was a chilling reminder of the damage that can be done when the foot comes off the pedal too soon.
“I think we need to learn as a group from the incident [against the Rangers],” Bruins coach Claude Julien said yesterday, as the Bruins prepared to face the Islanders tonight in Game 80 of 82.
“Part of it is that you need to respect the gameplan for 60 minutes, and we didn’t do that. Hopefully we learned a valuable lesson from here until the end of the season, and beyond that you can’t get too comfortable.
“We got comfortable and you could see the level of play slipped a little bit, and before you knew it, the damage was done. You have to respect the gameplan for 60 minutes. That’s what has made great teams great in the past.”
The loss Monday night was hardly meaningless to start the final week of the regular season. It likely denied the Bruins (99 points) any chance of catching Philadelphia or Washington (103 each) and moving into one of the top two spots in the conference — which could lead to extra postseason road games.
The Bruins close out the regular season against Ottawa and New Jersey this weekend.
“We should have never believed that the game was over once we got up 3-0,” Julien said. “If it’s a lesson learned, then it’ll be a positive thing down the road. If it’s not, then it’ll come to haunt us.”
