Bruins Sink To New Low In Loss To Lightning

The Boston Bruins are falling and falling fast as a 4-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday night at Amalie Arena stretched their recent skid to a season-long six games.

“We’re shooting ourselves in the foot time and time again,” Morgan Geekie told reporters in Tampa. “I feel like lots of these mistakes are of self-[inflicted]. We got to figure it out in this room, and we got guys that can do that. I believe in each and every one of the guys in this room. Our coaching staff is giving us all the tools and systems, and it’s on us to execute. That’s what we haven’t been doing. We’ve got to learn to build our game from the start of the first puck drop and play a full 60.”

The Bruins had a strong first period. Tampa dominated puck possession in the opening frame but had nothing to show for it as Jeremy Swayman and Boston’s penalty kill held them in check.

The Bruins found themselves in a shorthanded situation twice during the first period, once because of a tripping call against Pavel Zacha and another for a slash by Nikita Zadorov. With measured patience, the Bruins killed off both penalties, silencing the NHL’s fourth-best power-play unit.

As for the Bruins and their 31st-ranked power-play unit, they continued to find new and exciting ways to look incompetent.

With the game still scoreless in the middle of the second period, Boston went to the man advantage as Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman was called for interference. But even without Tampa’s best penalty killer on the ice, the Bruins couldn’t score, and instead, they gave up a goal.

In a poor attempt to break into the attacking zone, David Pastrnak ran into a wall of defenders and turned over the puck, springing the Lightning the other way on a shorthanded chance. Swayman made the initial save on Branden Hagel, but without any Bruins defending on the backcheck, he had no chance of stopping Anthony Cirelli’s shot off the rebound that put the Bolts on the board.

Michael Eyssimont then scored for Tampa off the rush with less than a minute remaining in the period to send the Bruins into the final 20 minutes trailing 2-0.

“We give up a shorthand goal, and that certainly takes a lot of wind out of your sail,” Bruins interim coach Joe Sacco said. “But we’re still in the game. It’s only 1-0, and then we give up one in the last minute in the period. That’s not a good recipe for success. Those goals, they are pretty much gift goals.”

Mason Lohrei scored for the Bruins early in the third.

Catching a pass at the point from Andrew Peeke across the blue line, Lohrei glided into the slot and patiently waited with the puck on his stick before sniping a shot past Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy for his second goal of the season.

It was Lohrei’s first goal since Oct. 14 and the first by a Bruins defenseman in 16 games.

But Boston can no longer settle for small victories. It needs real ones.

The Bruins made a late push but could never find the equalizer as Hagel hit an empty net with 1:32 to go. Brayden Point then scored for the Lightning on the power play with under a minute remaining.

After losing to Tampa, the Bruins fell into the first wildcard spot in the Eastern Conference and trail the Lightning by a point in the standings.

“It’s just so unacceptable at this level, at this time of year,” said Geekie. “Frustration is going to keep growing if we don’t clean things up.”

The Bruins will see the Lightning again in less than a week back home in Boston, but first, they must visit their old friends down in Sunrise on Saturday afternoon.