The Bruins are just two games into a five-game road trip and it already has the feeling of a season-defining disaster.
The B’s did not play a horrible game in Seattle on Thursday, but they had an unforgivably bad start after what happened to them in Manitoba on Tuesday. Thanks to three minor penalties off the hop, they spotted the Kraken two goals in the first 5:14 of the game and never fully recovered, losing 5-1, at Climate Pledge Arena.
The B’s have been too-often offensively challenged and that issue wasn’t helped on Thursday when they lost Elias Lindholm to an upper body injury in the second period. Pavel Zacha also left the game after taking a clear-in by Brandon Carlo off the foot in the third period.
Matt Poitras has been hot in Providence and we’ll see if he’s done enough for a recall.
“That’s something we’ll discuss,” said coach Joe Sacco. “We’ll see what’s going on with Lindy first. But he is playing well down there from the reports I’ve heard.”
But the issues this team is facing right now are more than you can expect a 20-year-old can fix. The B’s have not only been bad early in these two road games, they’ve been bad late as well. They’ve allowed eight third period goals in these two games, including an empty-netter on Thursday.
“We’ve got to clean it up defensively. Big time,” said captain Brad Marchand, who is now tied with Pavel Bure for the most penalty shot goals in NHL history with seven. “We can’t be giving up five and six goals a game. That’s not the type of team we are. Yeah, we got some pucks on net (they outshot Seattle 34-21) and made some good opportunities after they went up 2-0 but we still need to be better.”
After the brutal 8-1 loss in Winnipeg, the B’s tweaked their lineup around the edges, subbing in Tyler Johnson for Marc McLaughlin and Parker Wotherspoon for Mason Lohrei.
It didn’t provide an early spark. In Winnipeg the B’s took a penalty 25 seconds into the game, but they beat that on Thursday when David Pastrnak took a double minor in the offensive zone when he took a chunk out of Jamie Oleksiak’s chin with his stick with just 16 seconds gone from the game.
It took the Kraken less time than that to capitalize. Eight seconds after the ice crew scraped Oleksiak’s blood off the playing surface to start the Kraken power play, Oliver Bjorkstrand got position in front of Nikita Zadorov in the front of the net and deflected Matty Beniers’ shot/pass past Joonas Korpisalo.
The B’s weren’t done digging a hole. They killed off the second Pastrnak minor but then Johnson, coming into the lineup after five straight scratches, took an offensive zone tripping penalty.
Technically, the B’s killed that off, too. But before they could get a man back into the play, Charlie McAvoy’s clear attempt was picked off by Shane Wright and dished down to Jaden Schwartz in the corner. When Schwartz carried the puck toward the net at a bad angle, Korpisalo dropped his stick to defend the pass, leaving the upper shortside corner open. From behind the goal line, Schwartz found that opening with a sweet backhander to make it 2-0 just 5:14 into the game.
“Those aren’t good penalties, so you’re chasing the game again, and it’s hard to do in this league,” said Sacco. “We played hard tonight, but we just didn’t capitalize on our chances.”
Bad penalties at bad times.
“We just put ourselves in a really bad spot,” said Marchand. “Obviously guys aren’t trying to take penalties, but when you get down 2-0 that quick in a game, it just really is deflating and gives them a ton of momentum and allows them to feel really comfortable and confident in the game. We felt like after we got the first one that we were going to get the second one. But their goalie made some big saves and weathered the storm and it kind of fell apart.”
While the B’s played too loose in the first, they did spend more time in the Seattle zone, outshooting the Kraken 14-7 in the first and had some good chances. The best one came when Zacha fed an open Pastrnak in the slot but Phillipp Grubauer made a great blocker save.
The B’s finally did halve the lead at 10:28 of the second in an unusual sequence. After a good chance off the rush, the puck was close to crossing the goal line when Brandon Montour pulled it back with his glove. It was reviewed to see if the puck crossed the line but ruled it had not. But then Marchand was awarded a penalty shot because Montour had concealed the puck in the crease.
On the must-have freebie, Marchand beat Grubauer with a soft, cheeky backhander between the pads for his 12th of the year.
The B’s flurried at the end of the period but could not get the equalizer. They were also shorthanded up front. Lindholm played only three shifts in the second, the last ending at 7:47. He did not return due to an upper body injury, according to the B’s.
Early in the third period, the B’s quickly found themselves back in a two-goal ditch again. Korpisalo stopped a Jared McCann shot but the rebound went aerial. Vince Dunn batted it into the empty net and it was immediately called a goal on the ice. It was reviewed for a high stick but, though it was very close, the goal was upheld at 3:07.
And that was that.
The B’s sagged and Bjorkstrand made it 4-1 at 9:16 when he scored from the slot. McCann added an empty-netter to finish it off.
Now the B’s are off to Vancouver, where Jake DeBrusk (11 goals in his last 10 games, including a GWG in Boston last month) is surely eager to remind the B’s what they let walk out the door last summer. You’d like to say that they need a strong response, but whether they’re capable of doing that against a good Canucks team on Saturday is highly questionable.
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