Lead story: Bruins waste another three-goal advantage, fall to Penguins - The Boston Globe

Rust’s strike, his club-high 21st this season, finalized an unanswered string of four goals, a couple of those strikes delivered off velvety feeds from sublime superstar Sidney Crosby. However, getting beaten by one of the game’s best was little solace to the NHL’s original Black-and-Gold team from Boston, which has become all too familiar with booting away seemingly comfy leads.

Consider:

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■  It was last Monday that the Bruins moved to a 5-2 lead over the Flyers early in the second period, only to depart the Wells Fargo Center with a 6-5 OT loss — dotted by Brad Marchand’s embarrassing night-ending whiff on the last attempt in the shootout.

■  It was the third time this season the Bruins have booted away a lead of three or more goals and been left with a loss. The mind-bending trio of defeats began Nov. 12 at TD Garden, where a 4-0 lead over Florida in the second period also turned into a shootout loss (5-4). The Sunrisers posted four goals in the third to pull even in that one.

■  As of late Sunday afternoon, the team from Booterville led the league in turning leads of three goals or more into losses, per the forensic accounting of the Elias Sports Bureau. Of the NHL’s other 30 teams, only the Canucks, Devils, and Islanders (two boots each) could compare.

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“We saw some poor defending, poor goaltending in Philly,” noted chagrined coach Bruce Cassidy. “Tonight I think it was more of the same, to be honest with you. Not so much on the goalie [Jaroslav Halak] because they were good goals, but . . .”

Cassidy then began to review the parade of boo-boos that led to the goals by Dominik Simon, then Terry Blueger, then Jack Johnson (1:41 into the third) and finally Rust’s dagger, off a series of events that had McAvoy schooled by Malkin on the backwall.

“You need to make a play . . . you can’t turn the puck over there,” added Cassidy. “There’s too much of that going on — guys that have offensive ability have to start playing to their strength a little bit more on the back end or we have to seriously consider what kind of D corps do we want. We’re supposed to be mobile. We’re supposed to be able to move pucks out, add to our offense . . . and right now, that’s a challenge for us.”

McAvoy appeared to have control of the rock behind the goal line, recovering it after Halak’s sloppy attempt to make a stop back there on a puck rimmed in along right wing from center ice.

Option No. 1 for McAvoy would have been a safe play to partner Zdeno Chara in the direction of Pittsburgh’s right wing corner. When in doubt, get it to Big Z, who, even at age 42, has ways of making hot pucks disappear into a black hole.

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Instead, McAvoy attempted a riskier dish that would have sent the puck to Sean Kuraly out toward the left wing circle. But that was when Malkin took over. The big-shouldered Russian pivot plucked the puck from McAvoy, then tossed it by Kuraly, and in came Rust for the money shot. Textbook forecheck, pickpocket, pass.

PPG was in a thunder. Boot camp complete.

“I was trying to make a reverse play there to Kurl,” said a somber McAvoy. “I don’t know . . . good players in this league, so . . . [Malkin] made a good play. I have to be stronger on the puck. I’ll have to go look at it [on video], get better from it. Obviously, that hurt us.”

The wins have slowed to a trickle for the sons of Butch’s for the last seven weeks. They were a lofty 20-3-5, (.804 ) after a 2-0 win over the Hurricanes on Dec. 3. A win rate of 10 per month. They have won but eight of 22 games (8-7-7) over the last 47 days and now have the red-hot Tampa Bay Lightning climbing up their tattered backsides.

The Bolts, 29-15-4 with two games in hand, are but six points from tying the Boots (28-10-12) for the lead in the Atlantic Division. Following Tuesday’s visit by the Golden Knights, the Bruins go on their bye break and won’t get after it again until they face the Jets in Winnipeg on Jan. 31.

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Once back in the grind, they’ll have 30 games remaining on their regular-season schedule. If they can hold off the Bolts, it’s all but guaranteed they’ll clinch the Atlantic and face a wild-card team in Round 1. If they can’t, then they get the third-best team in the division, which the last two years has meant going the full seven to eliminate the Leafs.

It has tightened up, considerably, like a stiff tug of leather laces of a steel-toed boot. Upon returning, they’ll need to keep from aiming that toe at themselves.

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Kevin Paul Dupont can be reached at kevin.dupont@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeKPD.

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