Two weeks ago, at the Christmas break, it looked like the Bruins had turned their season around at least enough to comfortably be a playoff team. An 8-2-1 run to start December had allowed them to pull away from the non-playoff dregs of the Eastern Conference.
Now, the outlook for the rest of this season is once again foggy. After Tuesday’s 4-0 loss to the Edmonton Oilers at TD Garden, Boston has lost five in a row, and six of seven since the holiday break.
They are officially still in a playoff spot – just barely – but they have already been passed by Ottawa, and the possibility of getting caught by Montreal, Columbus, Detroit and/or Pittsburgh no longer seems far-fetched. The Bruins doing anything of note even if they make the playoffs might be what's far-fetched.
The last time the Bruins’ season seemed to be slipping away, when they lost five of seven in mid-November, general manager Don Sweeney took action by firing Jim Montgomery and installing Joe Sacco as interim head coach. The Bruins responded by taking advantage of a favorable stretch in the schedule and winning seven of nine.
What Sweeney does now is less clear, and there is no favorable schedule to take advantage of. The Bruins’ next three games are against Atlantic Division powers Tampa Bay (x2) and Florida. Eight of their 10 games between now and the end of January are against teams currently in a playoff spot.
If the Bruins can’t find a way to turn this around real soon, the season may very well be lost. There has been speculation around the league that trade activity may not wait for the March 7 deadline and might actually pick up before February’s 4 Nations Face-Off break. That means teams on the fringe, like the Bruins, may need to decide in the next month if they’re going to be buyers or sellers.
One change Sweeney can and should make is to call up at least one of the offensive-minded kids in Providence. Matt Poitras, Fabian Lysell and Georgii Merkulov are all producing in the AHL, but the Bruins have thus far refused to give any of them a real look (Lysell got one game just after Christmas), even as the offense continues to struggle.
Tuesday was the third time during this five-game losing streak that the Bruins scored one goal or less. Even when they had some offensive-zone possession in the first period, they couldn’t get shots on net. Fourteen of their 18 shot attempts in the first either missed the net or got blocked. That has been a trend, and one that is indicative of a team that lacks the playmaking and finishing talent to break down a structured defense.
The Bruins owe it to themselves to figure out if the kids can help their offense break through. Maybe they can’t, but the NHL roster they have right now definitely can’t. That there were no lineup changes for Tuesday’s game, despite losing four straight going in, was baffling. Injecting some youth now would also give the Bruins time to evaluate their internal options before picking a direction for the trade deadline.
Beyond call-ups and lineup changes, though, that bigger-picture question about the team’s direction remains. This was not supposed to be a season where selling was ever going to be on the table. After making the second round of the playoffs last year, Sweeney had the cap space to improve the roster, and believed he had by doling out big-money contracts for center Elias Lindholm and defenseman Nikita Zadorov.
Those two signings have yet to pay dividends. Goalie Jeremy Swayman has not lived up to his big new contract either. Most of the rest of the returning roster has underperformed, including franchise pillars David Pastrnak and Charlie McAvoy.
Sweeney could not have anticipated the sheer number of players who would take a step – or several steps – back. He could have anticipated the offensive struggles, though. The Bruins couldn’t score in the playoffs last year either, yet still entered the new season with a gaping hole in the top six.
It is a problem he still has not addressed. The locals are clearly getting restless, as evidenced by a “Fire Sweeney” chant that broke out in the balcony during the third period of Tuesday’s game. Sweeney, sitting in management’s box on level nine, could not have missed it.
If he can’t fix this, or doesn’t at least try, those fans may get their wish. Sweeney himself acknowledged after firing Montgomery that there may come a point in any GM’s tenure when ownership decides that firing you is the next change. Bruins history under the Jacobs family tells us that missing the playoffs is usually what triggers a GM change.
Bruins players were adamant postgame that they have the solutions in the room.
“We’ve seen it. We’ve seen what we’re capable of. We’ve shown it,” Charlie Coyle said. “There’s no question it’s in here. We know that.”
It’s getting harder and harder to believe that, though. The Bruins have, in fact, played good hockey for parts of this season, but not nearly often enough. Finding that consistency during arguably the toughest stretch of their season is not going to be easy. But if this team is going to save their season and avoid a sell-off, they have no choice.