Bruins’ SO Loss Not the End of the World

The Boston Bruins would be the first to say that there were parts of their game on Thursday night that could have been better. The players who don the sweaters with the Spoked-B take a lot of pride in bringing their very best as individual players each and every night. Thursday night some of them were certainly struggling. However that does not mean that they won’t do well this season. In fact in the seven games they have played, they are 5-1-1, which speaks to the team as a whole.

The difference between one of them having a bad day at the office and one of us is that we don’t have 17,000 plus people yelling at us at our office and another couple hundred thousand critiquing our every move and decision on social media. We don’t have the bright lights of the television cameras staring us down while the media dissect what we did our didn’t do. Oh sure, they signed up for that, but there perhaps needs to be a moment where everyone steps back, takes a breath and views the game in a rational manner.

Right now David Pastrnak is the anointed one. In the past two games alone he has notched six goals on nine shots. That’s impressive no doubt, and he will certainly try to continue the things that are allowing him to score so frequently.

“I think [Pastrnak’s] a goal-scorer in this league, he’s proven that. He’s getting a few breaks around the net, but he’s finishing his opportunities. But he’s around the net, right? So it’s a good lesson. Get there. He’s not only scoring one way, he’s certainly finding some pucks on the elbow on the power play, but that’s by design. But some of the other ones, he’s getting to the net, finding loose pucks, recovering pucks. He’s getting rewarded for his work,” said Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy.

Does the team think they can go far with just their first line putting up points? Of course not. They know they have to find a way to get the other three lines scoring. Right now the second line is temporarily missing David Krejci who is suffering from a lower-body injury. This means someone is being put on that line until Krejci’s return. It should be understandable that it might take those linemates a little while to get their timing down and perfect their communication.

Despite being outshot significantly in the first period and having some sloppy play in the second and third periods, the Bruins led twice in the game. And when the Tampa Bay Lightning’s Kevin Shattenkirk did get the go-ahead goal with less than five minutes remaining in regulation, the Bruins didn’t fold. They continued to play their game, showing the resilience they are known for—which resulted in Pastrnak knotting it up with just 3:05 remaining in regulation. That forced the game to overtime, guaranteeing the Bruins at least one point in a game that could just have easily denied them any points.

In the past the Bruins power play has been anything but. On Thursday night they were producing at 50% while on the man-advantage. That won’t carry them all the way to a Stanley Cup Final, but it showed how they have come to address some of their issues on the power play. Not all of the issues, as Tampa had a couple too many short-handed bids, but it speaks to Boston learning from their mistakes.

When asked about the game, Torey Krug suggested that the team’s hockey IQ was a bit low at the moment. However, when playing in the NHL the opposition will take advantage of those mistakes, and Tampa made them pay.

“There’s parts of the game that were good. We started defending better as the game went on, not good enough in the first period. Leaky through the middle of the ice off the rush, stuff that we address, we’ll see that Saturday and Tuesday with Toronto. Players are going to have to start identifying that, these strengths, they happened too often tonight, they got through the middle. Now, our power play, as much as it scored, gave up some shorties, so that’s a different animal we’ve got to be mindful of, managing the puck in certain situations. But five-on-five, a couple of goals there — we just need to be cleaner. Defending the rush. I think every goal — yeah, every goal came off the rush. I think our defensive zone coverage has always been good, our guys are good with structure there, but it’s managing the puck in the neutral zone. On the breakouts, we’re better I thought. And rush goals. It hurts,” Coach Cassidy stated.

The Bruins players and coaching staff will look at the breakdowns and begin to work on ways to prevent them from happening. While it’s impossible to play an absolutely perfect game—hockey, after all, is a game where the opposition capitalizes on mistakes—the Bruins will look for ways to minimize those mistakes.

While every game is definitely important and the goal is to get the two points, there will be games when that just doesn’t happen. Getting the point that they did should be recognized as an accomplishment and a sign of their fortitude. And as long as they have that, then they will improve.