At the final TV timeout Saturday, with 4:49 left in the game and the Bruins showing no signs of life, the jumbotron camera panned around the crowd like it usually does. Intentionally or not, it happened to stop on one Boston fan who was sound asleep.
Did Bruins deserve to be booed during loss to Caps?
It was the perfect summation of the day. The Bruins themselves seemingly slept through the game, getting shut out 3-0 and landing just 18 shots on goal against a Washington Capitals team that was riding a six-game losing streak coming in and had fallen out of the playoff picture.
Much of the rest of the crowd was not sleeping. They were awake and booing their team off the ice, making it clear that despite the Bruins’ great record, they were not happy with a second no-show performance in a week.
The Bruins also got booed during a lackluster 4-1 loss to the Calgary Flames on Tuesday, but they had seemingly put that behind them with a bounce-back 4-0 demolition of the league-leading Vancouver Canucks on Thursday.
Instead, it’s back to the drawing board once again, with coach Jim Montgomery ominously suggesting that there will be changes if he sees any more efforts like this.
“We will change or things will change,” Montgomery said after the loss. “We’re gonna have to look at everything. It just comes down to, there’s a puck between you and me, I want to break your leg to get it. We don’t have that right now, two of the last three games. That’s what it boils down to. It’s unacceptable.”
Here are three takeaways from an ugly day at TD Garden:
Grzelcyk ejected
An already poor first period for the Bruins got even worse at the 18:13 mark when Matt Grzelcyk got a five-minute major and a game misconduct for spearing Max Pacioretty in the groin.
Pacioretty had just knocked down Grzelcyk with a shove to the back behind the net. It’s unclear if Grzelcyk’s infraction was an intentional retaliation, or an unintentional spear where he tried to tie up Pacioretty’s stick and just missed.
Ultimately, it didn’t matter. The NHL rulebook is clear that any spear where contact is actually made is a five-minute major and a game misconduct. So, Grzelcyk’s day was done.
The Bruins killed off the first 1:47 of the power play to close out the first period, but couldn’t keep it up on the rest of the penalty kill that carried into the second. They wound up even more shorthanded when Brandon Carlo’s stick broke while blocking an Alex Ovechkin shot, which helped open up a lane for Pacioretty to set up T.J. Oshie in the slot for the game’s opening goal.
The ejection was the second of Grzelcyk’s career, with the other coming back in 2018. Needless to say, being down to five defensemen for the final 40 minutes didn’t help the Bruins.
Booed off the ice
It’s not often that the team with the second-best record in the league gets booed at home twice in a week – especially when there’s also a win over the team with the best record during that same week – but that has been the Bruins’ reality this week.
On the surface, that might sound like a spoiled fanbase acting spoiled. Maybe it is, but Bruins fans are also pretty knowledgeable, and they can tell the difference between a loss where their team turns in an honest effort and one where they don’t.
The Bruins’ two losses this week have both been full-blown stinkers. At no point on either Tuesday or Saturday did they look like they had any chance or desire to play a competitive hockey game. They got badly outworked and outhustled in both games, completely lacking the urgency required to win those 1-on-1 battles that Montgomery referenced.
They know it, too. If you’re going to give them credit for anything, at least the Bruins aren’t blaming their fans for the recent boos.
“I love our fans. That’s what I think. They’re hockey knowledgeable. They’re not wrong,” Montgomery said.
“You don't love it,” Carlo said. “I have so much respect for this organization, for that spoked B. We all do in this room. And I think the culture that's been established here in years past, especially since I've been here, you come to work every single day. I love the fact that the fans and this organization hold us accountable when we don't come to work to play, to be at our best. That's what you want from a fanbase. You can't imagine a better fanbase to win in front of, so I respect it obviously. But it’s something that I don't want to hear, because that means we're not doing our job.”
Captain Brad Marchand did allude to fans having a “short memory” – likely referencing both Thursday’s big win over Vancouver and the stellar season overall – but also acknowledged that fans have the right to boo if they don’t like what they’re seeing on the ice.
“They’ve got a short memory, but that's their right,” Marchand said. “They pay for tickets to come watch and they can cheer if they like what they see, and they can boo if they don't. So, that's up to them. Obviously, we know we have a very passionate sports city and very passionate fans, and they expect us to win every game. It's not gonna happen, but they’ve gotta see the effort, and obviously they didn't like it tonight.”
Need to be able to win with ‘B’ game
“If we don’t have our best game, we need to find a way to win with our ‘B’ game.”
That’s what Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman said at Thursday’s morning skate. It’s something the Bruins have stressed for years, and something they’ve been pretty good at most of this season. Especially early on, they won a lot of games when they weren’t really playing their best.
It hasn’t happened this week, though. They had their ‘A’ game, or something very close to it, in Thursday’s win over the Canucks. On Tuesday and Saturday, though, they never managed to get to their ‘B,’ ‘C’ or even ‘D’ game.
As bad as they were in the first two periods Saturday, they somewhat incredibly were still down by just one goal heading into the third. There still seemed to be hope for some sort of spark, for one good period to salvage the day.
It just never happened, though. A few minutes into the period, Charlie Coyle turned the puck over in the offensive zone, the Capitals took off on a 2-on-1 the other way, and Dylan Strome finished off a pass from Alex Ovechkin to make it 2-0.
The Bruins still had openings to get back in the game even after that. The Capitals gave them three power plays in the third period. Score on one of them and it’s a one-goal game, and you suddenly have life. Again, it never happened. The power play was sloppy all day, landing five total shots on goal on four man advantages. The three in the third period were all met with more boos as they came to uninspiring conclusions.
According to Carlo, winning with your ‘B’ game means simplifying and understanding that it’s probably not your night to make highlight-reel plays. He didn’t see the team do that Saturday.
“I'm not like the most highly skilled guy. I think when I'm not feeling it, I just like to simplify my game to the best of my ability and make the right play,” Carlo said. “We all know our systems, and if we can work as a group of five out there on the ice playing a simple game, we'll start to develop some shifts where we actually build a little bit of momentum. And from there, guys will start feeling a little bit better throughout the course of the game. I don't think we did a very good job of simplifying at points tonight. I think especially off the hop in the first period, when you don't feel like things are going your way, just to simplify is the best thing you can do.”