The Bruins broke their 10-game losing streak with a win over the Hurricanes on Saturday night.
It has been a brutal last three weeks plus for the Boston Bruins. Not only were they sellers at the trade deadline, but after wins over the Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers (go figure), they were stuck in a 10-game losing streak heading into Saturday night's home game against the Carolina Hurricanes.
The losing streak had dropped the Black and Gold to the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings and had them picking in the top 5 in the entry draft in June. As fans, that's something to get excited about, but as players, they don't care about that and want to win games.
Frustrations reached a boiling point over the last couple of weeks and welcoming the Hurricanes was not going to be pretty, especially after they lost Friday night, 5-3, in Detroit against a Red Wings team that has fallen out of the playoff race as well. Think again.
Bruins break 10-game losing streak with a strong performance in win over Hurricanes
After 10 straight losses, it appeared that the Bruins had had enough. Thanks to one of Jeremy Swayman's best performances of the year, Boston scoring goals late in a period and early in periods, and a dominating offensive performance from David Pastrnak, the Black and Gold snapped their misery with a win over Carolina.
During the 10-game losing streak, the Bruins were the ones giving up goals where you would say, "You need a save there.'' That was Carolina and goalie Frederik Andersen. Morgan Geekie opened the scoring with 1:11 left in the first period when his shot somehow beat Andersen for a 1-0 lead. With 13 seconds left in the period, Elias Lindholm (remember him?) was able to poke the puck between Andersen's pads for a 2-0 lead.
Then, enter Pastrnak. He scored in the second period from a difficult angle inside the far post for a 3-0 lead, and then early in the third period, he redirected a puck in the pair inside the post for a 4-0 lead. He completed the hat trick with 4:42 left when he potted his third after deeking out Andersen at the net for a five-point night. Imagine that getting pucks to the net, and they get puck luck?
However, if we're being honest, do they want puck luck at this point in the season? The tank was going so well, but for one night, they took out their frustration on Carolina, who handed them an embarrassing loss in October, then a gut-wrenching loss last month. A win is a win and now they look to finish out the final five games before an interesting off-season begins.
