The vibes were understandably great after the Bruins opened the Marco Sturm era with three straight wins. Everything Boston had been preaching during training camp seemed to be coming to fruition: They worked hard. They were physical. They played defense. Their structure was back. Their goaltending was excellent.
The last two games have put a bit of a damper on things. The Bruins shot themselves in the foot one too many times in Monday’s 4-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Then they did it again Thursday night in Vegas in a 6-5 loss to the Golden Knights. These kinds of high-scoring, defense-optional games are not their blueprint for success.
The Bruins actually took 1-0 and 2-1 leads in the first period, but gave up said leads less than two minutes later both times. After Tanner Jeannot struck first, Vegas answered 1:30 later. Viktor Arvidsson rotated back to cover for a pinching Jordan Harris, but then couldn’t make a play on Pavel Dorofeyev as the young sniper blew right past him before snapping a shot past Jeremy Swayman.
After Nikita Zadorov made it 2-1 Boston later in the period, the response came 1:49 later. Rookie center Fraser Minten got caught turning the wrong way in the defensive zone to open up a shooting lane, and then Harris couldn’t clear away a popped-up rebound before Cole Reinhardt whacked it past Swayman.
The Golden Knights’ third goal was a bit fluky, with a Jack Eichel shot from the high slot deflecting off a stick and up and over Swayman.
The fourth came off a major breakdown from the Bruins’ penalty kill, which had been perfect entering Thursday night. They twice gave Vegas a grade-A look on a cross-crease pass from Mark Stone to Dorofeyev, whose five power-play goals on the season lead the NHL. Swayman made a great save on the first. The second hit the post and dropped into the crease, where Tomas Hertl banged it in.
David Pastrnak cut the deficit to 4-3 on the power play. Then the penalty kill came up with a massive double kill that included a Pavel Zacha double-minor and an extended 5-on-3. It looked like special teams were lifting the Bruins right back into the game. But then Boston’s next power play was a disaster, and gave away a backbreaking shorthanded goal.
That power play, late in the second, was just way too sloppy from the start. Charlie McAvoy committed a turnover with a soft wrister right into a body. Morgan Geekie committed another with a drop pass to no one. The Bruins got away with those, but strike three did them in when Casey Mittelstadt had an ill-advised pass easily picked off by Stone and taken the other way for the shorty.
Special teams failed the Bruins again early in the third when another penalty-kill breakdown handed William Karlsson a clear path to the net for an easy finish past Swayman. Make it 6-3.
The Bruins, to their credit, did fight back, just as they did on Monday after falling behind. Goals from Mark Kastelic and Mikey Eyssimont pulled them back within one with still nearly 15 minutes left in the game. That was as close as they would get, though.
This team isn’t rolling over the way last year’s Bruins did on too many occasions. But they also can’t expect to win too many games making the kinds of mistakes they’ve made these last two games. Turnovers. Penalties. Special teams breakdowns. Up-and-down, firewagon hockey. It all needs to be greatly reduced.
They know it. Sturm is going to make sure they know it.
“If we want to play that way, we’re just never going to win,” Sturm told NESN after the game. “The mistakes we made over and over again, we don't want to play that way. We don't want to play back and forth. We don't want to play just like we did last game against Tampa. It's way too many goals against and easy breakdowns. I'm almost glad it happened, because it shows us we have work to do. We just can’t play that way.”
Sturm and the Bruins will try to clean things up before another tough matchup Saturday night in Colorado against the Avalanche.