There wasn’t much reason to focus on negatives through the Bruins’ first three games, as they won all three and could seemingly score at will to cover up any mistakes they did make.
Tuesday night’s 7-5 loss to the Senators brought some early-season concerns to the forefront, though. Giving up seven goals tends to do that.
Making sense of a wild night in Ottawa
Sure, there were still some positives. David Pastrnak, Patrice Bergeron and Jake DeBrusk all continued to roll with multi-point games. A.J. Greer and Nick Foligno continued to provide offensive depth with a goal apiece. In four games, Greer already has more goals as a Bruin (3) than he had in his first 47 career NHL games (2). Foligno, meanwhile, has already matched last season’s goal total (2).
The Bruins’ resiliency was encouraging, too. On the second night of a back-to-back, they could’ve easily rolled over after falling behind 3-0, but instead they fought back to tie the game. They had another chance to call it a night when they gave up three more and trailed 6-3, but they once again battled to get it to 6-5 before ultimately coming up short.
That said, here are four concerns they have to try to fix:
1. Defensive breakdowns
Just way too many of them. There had been some in the first three games, but the Bruins were able to overcome them thanks to their offensive explosion and some timely saves. There were no bailouts on Tuesday, though.
It started right off the bat with the Bruins giving the Senators way too much time and space on a pair of rushes that allowed them to take a 2-0 lead just 3:09 into the game. In both cases, the Bruins had enough players back, but just didn’t step up to challenge the shooter.
There were lost battles. On Ottawa’s third goal, Hampus Lindholm and Mike Reilly somehow lost a 2-on-1 battle to Tim Stutzle behind the net. On the fifth, Jakub Zboril bailed out of a hit in the corner and gave the puck away.
There were poor decisions. On the Senators’ fourth goal, Derek Forbort made a bad neutral-zone pinch, couldn’t get the puck, and saw Mathieu Joseph and Shane Pinto take off on a 2-on-1 behind him. On the sixth, Anton Stralman made an ill-advised pass behind his own net that was easily picked off by Austin Watson and centered to goal-scorer Mark Kastelic.
On Ottawa’s final goal of the night, it was Pavel Zacha losing track of his man in a 4-on-4 situation and Connor Clifton then being unable to make a 1-on-1 stop against Artem Zub, a defenseman.
That’s all six defensemen we were just able to lowlight. On one hand, some struggles are to be expected when you’re missing three of your top four defensemen due to injury. On the other, the blue line the Bruins currently have still can and should be much better than it was Tuesday night. The back-to-back may have been a factor, and Stralman may have been rusty after not playing in a while, but none of it excuses all those breakdowns.
“Our checking was, I guess the best word to describe it was atrocious,” coach Jim Montgomery told NESN after the game. “We were on the wrong side of pucks. We weren’t coming back hard enough. We left our goalie out to dry. We didn’t protect the net-front.”
2. Jeremy Swayman
Montgomery is right that the Bruins hung Swayman out to dry Tuesday night, but Swayman wasn’t nearly good enough either.
The first two goals, in particular, were shots he needs to stop. He wasn’t screened, they weren’t deflected, and they weren’t exactly snipes. For whatever reason, Swayman just didn’t seem to track them well and wasn’t able to get squared.
Swayman got pulled during the second intermission after giving up six goals on 25 shots. In two starts so far, he has given up nine goals on 49 shots for an ugly .816 save percentage. That comes on the heels of a lackluster preseason that saw him post an .897 save percentage in two starts.
After the game, Swayman guaranteed he’ll be better.
“It’s disappointing, especially the way we bounced back. The effort we gave was unbelievable, and I feel like I let the boys down,” Swayman said. “I’m gonna go back to the drawing board and do whatever I can, because I guarantee you I’m gonna make this up.”
For now, we can probably take Swayman at his word and trust that he’ll get things figured out. It’s still too early to panic. And the good news for the Bruins is that while Swayman has struggled, Linus Ullmark has been very good (2-0-0, .927 save percentage).
Still, the Bruins would like to see Swayman get on track sooner than later, especially at a time when the defense is banged up and is going to need their goalie to pick them up at times.
3. Taylor Hall
One notable forward who hasn’t really been in on the Bruins’ scoring frenzy: Taylor Hall. While the likes of Pastrnak, Bergeron, Krejci, DeBrusk and even Greer are finding the scoresheet on pretty much a nightly basis, Hall has just one point so far -- a goal back on opening night.
This isn’t really a case of just being snakebitten either. Hall has been quiet on too many shifts, which is especially odd when you consider that this faster-paced hockey the Bruins have been playing should suit his game perfectly.
While Montgomery hasn’t publicly criticized Hall to this point, it’s clear that he wants more out of him. He has shuffled up the top two lines multiple times over the last few games, and it seems like the one guy in that group that he’s really trying to get going is Hall. The other guys are already going.
On Tuesday, Hall played just two shifts for 1:51 in the third period, going nearly 11 minutes between shifts. Perhaps there was some sort of injury situation we don’t yet know about -- remember, Hall was dealing with an upper-body injury during the final week of preseason -- but otherwise it looks like a good old-fashioned benching.
4. Craig Smith
Smith didn’t even play Tuesday night, and that’s the problem. He found himself healthy-scratched, one night after being demoted to the fourth line and playing a team-low 7:03 on Monday.
Smith has zero goals, one assist and just two shots on goal through three games this season. Combine that with his disappointing finish to last season -- zero goals, four assists over the final 20 games, including zero points in seven playoff games -- and it looks like part of a bigger problem for Smith, and not just a small sample size issue.
Going into the season, Smith and Charlie Coyle appeared to be the two fixtures on the third line, with only the left-wing spot being a question mark. Now, however, it’s Coyle and Greer that look like the fixtures, and Trent Frederic appears to have jumped ahead of Smith for the third spot thanks to a couple strong games since being healthy-scratched on opening night.
Smith has a handful of 20-goal seasons on his resume, which none of those other guys can say. The Bruins would love for that Craig Smith to resurface. But if, at 33 years old, it’s no longer there, then Smith might continue to have trouble getting playing time.
And if Smith has trouble getting playing time, then you have to start to wonder about him as a possibility to be on the move when the Bruins eventually have to clear some salary off the books when they activate Charlie McAvoy off long-term injured reserve. Smith has a cap hit of $3.1 million, and at this point seems to be just as likely a candidate as the previously waived Nick Foligno ($3.8 million) and Mike Reilly ($3 million).
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