BOSTON — The Bruins got behind early and got blown out at home by a bad team.
The Blue Jackets arrived at TD Garden in last place in the Metropolitan Division and had the second few points in the NHL after going 1-6-1 in their previous eight games. But Columbus scored the first three goals of the game and cruised to an easy 5-1 win over the Bruins, who were booed as they left the ice on Monday.
Boston faces Utah on Thursday at TD Garden.
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Dmitri Voronkov was credited with the first Blue Jackets goal. He got behind the Bruins defense and got a relatively soft backhander off on Jeremy Swayman, who made the save easily. But Brandon Carlo, who was trying to get back attempted a dive in hopes of thwarting Voronkov’s shot attempt.
Instead, he crashed into Swayman and dislodged the puck, which trickled into the net giving Columbus a 1-0 lead.
The Bruins’ struggling power play had a chance to tie the game but instead dug the hole deeper. Mathieu Olivier, who fought Jeffrey Viel earlier, got his second leg of the Gordie Howe hat trick with a short-handed goal to make it 2-0 with 9:21 left.
Former Bruin James van Riemsdyk piled a third one on in the final minute of the frame to make it 3-0. It was his 19th career goal against Boston.
The crowd showed the Bruins with boos as they left the ice.
Elvis Merzlikins was excellent thwarting several good early chances before Charlie Coyle put Boston on the board with a second-period power-play goal to make it 3-1 with 5:30 left.
But Justin Danforth extinguished all hope with the Jackets’ second shorthanded goal early in the third.
Takeaways
Swayman struggles again — At practice on Sunday, Bruins coach Jim Montgomery didn’t rule out giving Joonas Korpisalo a second straight start. The Boston backup has played well and an extra day off might have benefitted struggling starter Jeremy Swayman. But he went back to Swayman, who gave up three goals in the first period and two in the third.
The first was clearly not his fault, but after allowing seven in his last start against Dallas, they all feel like dents in his armor. He finished with 24 saves.
Bruins power play scores a goal but allows two shorthanded goals — The Bruins scored their first power-play goal in seven games in the second period. They’d come up empty on 16 extra-man opportunities over those previous six games and entered Monday with a league-worst 11.3% percent success rate.
But the unit was a net-negative allowing two shorthanded goals in the game. They’ve given up four with a man advantage, the worst in the NHL.
Jeffrey Viel debuts noticeably — While many players have arrived from Providence and made limited impacts, Viel earned some notice right away. He got into a fight on his first shift on the ice, picked up a boarding penalty later in the first period and drew a high sticking penalty that put the Bruins on the power play. In all, he played 15 shifts over 8:29.
