Miles Wood knows it may have cost his team the season opener on Thursday night.
New Jersey striker Devils, who is as exciting to watch as he is erratic (and occasionally stupid), did not have one but two penalties for interfering with Boston Bruins goalkeeper Tuukka Rask.
Both times he was in the area for running the goalkeeper, Bruins scored.
The first collision came at 5:02 pm in the opening period and, with 38 seconds ahead, Brad Marchand put the Bruins 1-0 ahead.
Then, at 11:13 am of the third period, Wood executed Rask again. And with just a few seconds to go for the power game, Nick Ritchie put the Bruins ahead 2-1.
If he had stayed out of the box, we could be talking about a different result from the 3 to 2 victory that the Bruins won after Marchand’s decisive victory on penalties.
“These two calls to me were extremely selfish, I will blame myself, that shouldn’t happen,” said Wood after the game, via Zoom.
The interesting point this season is the number of baseball-style series teams that will play in the regular season. Then, the Bruins and Devils will meet again on Saturday afternoon. What level of retribution the Bruins are looking for has yet to be seen.
Miniature photo via Ed Mulholland / USA TODAY Sports Images