The Bruins received a spoonful of reality on Tuesday in Winnipeg and it did not go down smoothly.
The B’s slot defense and penalty-killing, which had been much improved under coach Joe Sacco, backslid in a big way with an 8-1 loss to the Jets, who went 3-for-6 on the power play at Canada Life Centre.
While going 7-2 in the first nine games under Sacco, the B’s had feasted on non-playoff teams. But when facing the Jets, one of the top teams in the league in the first two months of the season, the B’s did not elevate their game.
Jeremy Swayman allowed eight goals — five in the third period — on 35 shots. It was a step back for the goalie, though he certainly wasn’t the only Bruin moonwalking.
“Some of the goals I let in, I know I can stop,” Swayman told reporters in Winnipeg. “That’s something where I hold myself to a standard and when you let those in, it’s not a great feeling. I want to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”
It was not the way the B’s wanted to start a five-game road trip.
“I just think they were the better team tonight, from start to finish,” said Sacco. “We killed an early penalty and then after that we started to play OK. But then the game got away from us and we just lost to a better team tonight, from start to finish.”
One of the directives going into the game was to stay disciplined against Winnipeg’s third-ranked power play. That was also the first thing they ignored, taking three minors in the first and falling behind 2-0 in the opening 20 minutes.
“We made it an easy night for them and they were just doing what they wanted tonight,” said David Pastrnak. “It was a lot of penalties so they were on the power play. There were a lot of defensive mistakes 5-on-5.”
Trent Frederic took an interference penalty just 25 seconds into the game, but the B’s were able to kill that off and actually played pretty well for much of the period. Connor Hellebuyck needed to make several good stops to keep the B’s off the board.
But things fell apart when Brandon Carlo took a high-sticking double minor on Kyle Connor at 10:30. With 21 seconds left in the first infraction, the Jets struck for their first goal.
From the blue line, Neal Pionk blasted a slapper off the end boards that bounced out front, hit Nino Niederreiter at one side of the crease and bounced to Vladislav Namestnikov at the other post for a tap-in.
After then having to kill off the full two minutes on the second penalty, the B’s had lost any semblance of momentum.
Late in the period, Sacco tried what he’s done in the past to some degree of success, loading up the first line with both Pastrnak and Brad Marchand. But this time it backfired. Pastrnak had made a great back-check to break up Gabe Vilardi but the B’s could not control the puck. Both Mason Lohrei and Andrew Peeke were in no man’s land and Connor was allowed to find Mark Scheifele wide open in the slot to put the Jets up 2-0 with 1:59 left in the first.
At the start of the second, the B’s again applied some pressure and earned their first power play of the game. They had several good chances, but Hellebuyck was in good position for all of them until Pastrnak took a high-sticking penalty on Logan Stanley to nullify the advantage, a blown call because it was actually Stanley’s own stick that hit the Jet defenseman.
As the 4-on-4 was expiring, Nikita Zadorov had a good chance from the slot that Hellebuyck blockered and the Jets went on the attack with the extra man. The B’s coverage was discombobulated and Josh Morrissey found a wide-open Scheifele on the left side for his second of the game at 7:02.
The B’s did get one back on their next power play after Pionk slashed Marchand.
On the PP, Charlie McAvoy set up Pastrnak for what had been his patented one-timer form the left elbow. The goal, Pastrnak’s 10th of the season, was his first in four games and first power-play goal since Oct. 26.
But if that goal created the illusion of the Bruins back in the game, that idea was extinguished 1:15 into the third period with a self-inflicted wound. On a breakout, Marchand tried a touch pass to Justin Brazeau at the blue line. The Jets picked it off and quickly made it 4-1 with Scheifele finding Connor for the goal from the slot.
Vilardi added another off the rush and Alex Iafallo scored the third PP for Winnipeg to make it a blowout.
The B’s decided to get a pound of flesh any way they could and, at 7:27, a couple of B’s squared up for fights. First, Trent Frederic one-punched an overmatched David Gustafsson and then Stanley wanted a piece of Mark Kastelic, who had a relatively successful fight with the 6-foot-7 Winnipeg defenseman.
The fisticuffs at the point irked the Jets bench as coach Scott Arniel and Sacco were barking at each other.
Off the next faceoff, Adam Lowry dropped the gloves with Zadorov, who wrestled the Jets captain down.
For good measure, the Jets added two more in quick succession in garbage time.
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