The Bruins are entering some pretty heady territory with the epic slump that they are completely mired in at this point.
The struggling B’s dropped their 10th consecutive game, this time a 4-1 loss at the hands of the rival Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Centre, and officially sunk below the perpetually lottery-bound Buffalo Sabres in the Atlantic Division standings. That is a truly resounding thud as the bottom completely falls out of the season for the Black and Gold, and a place in the Eastern Conference that would have been completely unthinkable for the Bruins even a year ago at this time.
The most discouraging part at this point is the Bruins actually played one of their better games against a Habs team that looks destined for the playoffs. They showed some fight and emotion, something that’s been lacking for most of this slide as the B’s detachedly play out the string, and even saw some sparks fly when Cole Koepke got into his first NHL fight with Kaiden Guhle during a scrappy divisional game.
But once again they just weren’t able to match up with the talent level lining up across from them in Montreal, and they had another disappearing act in the second period while being outshot 17-2 by their opponents. The long-change second period has been the most obvious place where anybody can see the NHL talent disparity on display as the ice gets tilted just about every single in a segment where they need to execute clean offensive zone entries and dumps, and presumably get tired players off the ice.
“They tilted the ice to our end in the second period. We mismanaged some pucks and you don’t do that, especially in the second period when you’re trying to establish your game offensively,” said Joe Sacco. “You have to do a better job of valuing the puck at certain times.”
It's clear the frustration of 10 straight defeats, and 11 consecutive games where they’ve scored three or fewer goals in a true offensive shutdown, is beginning to gnaw away at some of the more competitive guys on the roster.
“The other teams are just hungrier than ours,” admitted Nikita Zadorov. “They want to win more, that’s the bottom line. We’re just not hard on the puck. We’re easy to play against.”
The 10-game losing streak ties the eighth-longest losing streak in Boston Bruins franchise history, with the most recent coming in a 2009-2010 season where the B’s similarly had a difficult time consistently generating offense and scoring goals. That group, however, was a talented, young team finding their way that a year later would be good enough to capture a Stanley Cup.
This group is far, far away from that rarified air with Elias Lindholm scoring the game’s only goal after he replaced a struggling Pavel Zacha as the center between scoring threats David Pastrnak and Morgan Geekie.
“It’s going to take 60 minutes of consistent hockey right now,” said Sacco. “And I think we have moments where we play well, but not long enough, during the course of a game. We have to be able to sustain more a 60-minute effort and I think that’s what it’s going to take.
“And we have to just understand that we have to pull out of this together. It’s not about one person or two persons trying to pull us out of it, we have to do it together as a team, but more focused on the process, how we play, and when you do that usually the score will take care of itself. We have to do a better job with our process.”
Sacco speaks the truth that the B’s enjoy pockets of games where they play decent hockey against quality teams like Montreal, just as they had in the previous two defeats to the Red Wings and the Capitals.
And Jeremy Swayman was very good while making 28 stops in the loss to Montreal, including this highlight reel glove save on Alexandre Carrier where he never gave up on the play as he was battling in the crease.
But they also have a group that doesn’t have a single individual that’s scored more than two goals in 14 games during the month of March aside from Pastrnak (four goals) and Geekie (eight goals).
And they have a talented 24-year-old defenseman named Mason Lohrei that’s been thrust into a big spot with Hampus Lindholm and Charlie McAvoy out, and he’s had some serious growing pains while posting a team-worst minus-18 in those 14 games.
“I thought [Swayman] was really good tonight,” said Sacco. “He really gave us a change and was hanging in there. I think the last couple of games he’s been playing well. I’m sure he wants to end this year feeling good about himself, and all of that comes from his preparation and his work.”
It’s hard to envision anybody on the Bruins really feeling good about themselves when it comes to this season, aside from perhaps Geekie as he continues to pile up career offensive highs with each game after assisting in Lindholm’s lone score for his career-best 45th point of the season.
And aside from, perhaps, Bruins management that has overseen a late-season slide that has the B’s poised to make a top-5 selection in the first round that could bring them that elusive top line center that they’re missing right now.
“We always find a way to beat ourselves, I feel like right now,” said Lindholm. “We’ve obviously been losing a lot and turning way too many pucks over. There were a lot of things that went wrong. This is our job. We’re getting paid a lot of money to do this and there’s a lot of people out there struggling. It shouldn’t be hard to find a little motivation.”
That’s the sound of an exasperated hockey player in a losing dressing room that probably can’t wait for the season to over. He surely isn’t alone in a downcast Bruins dressing room that really needs some kind of win amidst a whole lot of losing that’s been going on since the NHL trade deadline.
