Battle Weary Bruins?

(Photo: Fred Kfoury III/Icon Sportswire)

After having taken five out of a possible six points on their western Canadian three-game road trip this past week, the Boston Bruins returned to home ice on Tuesday evening to welcome the Vegas Golden Knights. However, Monday saw them lose two valuable players in Brad Marchand and Craig Smith to the COViD-19 protocol.

As a result, there was a shuffling of lines that put Taylor Hall in on the top line for Marchand. Meanwhile the second line saw Eric Haula on the left wing and Nick Foligno on the right with Charlie Coyle centering. Jake DeBrusk, Tomas Nosek and Karson Kuhlman played the third line while Anton Blidh, Trent Frederic and Curtis Lazar took the fourth line.

There is always something about their return from the western Canadian trip, regardless of how well or poor they did, that seems to lack energy. That was evident in the first period and was coupled with a lot of additional struggles in communication. The mixing of the top two lines certainly played into some of the miscommunications to be sure, but what was really hurting them was their inability to maintain any puck possession. Credit certainly goes to the Golden Knights who had some timely takeaways during the opening frame.

By the end of the first period Vegas was up 3-0 and it looked like Jeremy Swayman’s own players weren’t doing him any favors. The first goal, from the blue line, by Shea Theodore bounced off of Derek Forbort to get by Swayman. The third goal, a power play goal by Jonathan Marchessault with four-tenths of a second remaining in the period ricocheted off two Bruins players to change direction before getting past Swayman.

The second goal of the period was really the only one that Swayman should have had. It was the result of the Bruins inability to keep the puck in the offensive zone. Coyle couldn’t handle the dump which did end up bouncing up just at the top of the circle allowing Chandler Stephenson the opportunity to make a solid cross-ice pass to Max Pacioretty who saw what was happening and got himself back to the Bruins’ blue line. Stephenson put the puck right on Pacioretty’s stick and he got in behind everyone. Forbort was the closest defenseman, and he simply couldn’t catch up. Pacioretty’s wrist shot went five-hole.

Pacioretty would notch his second of the game at 5:09 of the second period. While the Bruins continued to play a lot of “dump and chase” hockey which wasn’t working for them given their trials already with puck possession, they did pick up the pace in the hits department in the middle frame. Of the 16 hits tallied in the second, Foligno was credited with three, while Coyle, Lazar, Forbort and Haula each added two. Apparently, the feeling was if they couldn’t take the puck then they would take the player.

Patrice Bergeron finally put the Bruins on the scoreboard 21 seconds into the third period, with a snap shot in the slot off Hall’s pass from behind the net. This ended Robin Lehner’s bid for the shutout. The third period saw a much different Bruins team that started to slow the Golden Knights down in the neutral zone.

When Swayman was pulled for the extra attacker, the Bruins were stellar when it came to blocking shots – Moore and Foligno stepping up big. In fact, when Boston won the faceoff in the Bruins end after the final television time out and having possession behind their own net, Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy was confident enough to pull Swayman again for the extra attacker before the Bruins had cleared the puck out.

The first period set much of the tone of the game, and Pacioretty’s second goal early in the second period dug a hole too deep for the Bruins to climb out of. They looked somewhat battle weary from the first puck drop of the game, not truly rising to a level that somewhat resembles Bruins hockey until the third period.

With the loss, the Bruins find themselves just outside the wildcard position, but they continue to have three or more games in hand on all but the Ottawa Senators within their division. They have little time to dwell as they must head back out on the road—taking on the New York Islanders on Thursday and then the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday.