CHICAGO – The hole just seems a little bit deeper after 112 minutes of hockey.
Sure, the Boston Bruins only lost Game 1 of the Stanley Cup final on Wednesday, but boy did it sting on a night where they played almost two full games.
Making matters worse was the fact Boston blew a 3-1 lead to the Chicago Blackhawks in the final 12 minutes of regulation and squandered enough chances during the three ensuing overtime periods to wonder what it had done to anger the Hockey Gods.
You had to read between the lines to come to that conclusion, but it wasn’t a particularly difficult task in an understandably quiet post-game dressing room.
Talk had already turned to refocusing in the minutes after the Bruins saw a fantastic game end when Michal Rozsival’s point shot pinballed off Dave Bolland’s stick and Andrew Shaw’s shinpad just as the clock struck midnight at the United Center.
“Shoulda woulda coulda is not going to get you anywhere,” Bruins winger Milan Lucic said after the 4-3 loss. “It’s not going to win us a game in the end. And I think we need to focus on Game 2 as fast as we can.”
That task was going to be particularly tough for Kaspars Daugavins.
The late season waiver wire pickup that has been in and out of the Bruins lineup during these playoffs had nearly channeled his inner Petr Klima about two minutes before the game ended.
Daugavins had Corey Crawford down and out — with most of a four-by-six net to shoot at — but went tumbling to the ice after taking the puck to his backhand and having Johnny Oduya make a desperation slide to break up the play.
The 25-year-old Latvian forward may never get a chance to score a bigger goal in his career. He knew it, too.
“We played a pretty good game until I should have scored,” Daugavins said.
He vowed to flush the memory before the Bruins returned to the rink for practice on Friday afternoon. Until then, he expected it to run through his mind from time to time.
There had been so many different chances for Boston to author a different outcome on the opening night of the championship series.
A remarkably composed Crawford stared down a half dozen point-blank scoring opportunities in extra time and Jaromir Jagr tipped a Zdeno Chara shot off the post with 10 seconds to play in the second overtime.
Of course, there is also the matter of the late two-goal lead that evaporated quickly in the third period thanks to a Torey Krug turnover and an unlucky bounce off Andrew Ference’s left skate.
When you add it all up there is clearly room for improvement from Claude Julien’s team.
“We’re going to watch the tapes, we’re going to fix some things where we need to fix,” Daugavins said. “I think mentally and physically we’re going to be going (in Game 2). It’s playoffs, it’s the final.
“You can’t just think about your loss all days – you have to move on and try to get ready for the next game. You can’t go down 2-0 (in the series).”
That is a real and present danger after the way Game 1 unfolded.
The mental toll on a losing team is nearly as great as the physical one when it plays this far into the night. Shaw’s goal came 12:08 into triple overtime — making it the fifth-longest game in Stanley Cup final history — and fell just three minutes shy of Klima’s surprising OT winner for Edmonton during the 1990 final.
Julien emphasized his team’s experience when asked about how he expected it to respond to disappointment in the series opener.
“Last time we won the Cup, we lost the first two games to Vancouver,” Julien said. “It never stopped us from coming back. This certainly won’t. When you look at the game, it could have gone either way.
“I thought we had some real great looks in overtime. With a little bit of luck, we could have ended it before they did.”
It was an exhausting night for both teams — neither of which will complain about the two off days before Game 2 goes on Saturday night.
Among the main concerns for Boston between games will be the status of top-line winger Nathan Horton, who left during the third period on Wednesday with what appeared to be a shoulder injury.
Julien did not offer on an update on his status after the game.
There was something just not totally right for the Bruins in their first matchup with Chicago since 2011. They will be looking for a strong response when the puck drops again in 48 hours.
“It just looked like it wasn’t our night,” Rask said. “On that power play, the deflection hits the inside of the post and we can’t get it in. There was a lot of loose pucks in front of the net and we couldn’t pounce on those.
“Daugavins has an empty net … it just wasn’t our night.”
Suddenly, the Finnish goalie was out of words.
It’s worth remembering that the Bruins had to play an awful lot of hockey before finding out that luck wasn’t on their side. Soon they will get back to work on putting the marathon Game 1 outing behind them.
“(We’ll do that) tomorrow, Friday,” Rask said. “Then move on.”