Marco Sturm had a sense this might have been coming. Meeting with the media after the Bruins’ 3-1 loss to Carolina at TD Garden Monday night, Sturm said he could see even at morning skate that his team wasn’t quite as locked in as they needed to be.
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“I’m never looking for an excuse, even when guys are in and out of the lineup,” Sturm said. “But yeah, even I felt it. I'll be honest. I felt it today. It was an emotional night the other night in Montreal, and yeah, I just, we felt it in the morning. We felt it before game. It was just a slow day today. I could see it in their eyes. We were just mentally, physically not 100 percent today, that’s for sure.”
Sturm is right about Saturday being an emotional night. The Bruins got a big win over the rival Canadiens at the Bell Centre that vaulted them into first place in the division. They also saw one of their leaders and best players, Charlie McAvoy, go down with a gruesome injury after taking a slap shot to the mouth.
Maybe a bit of a letdown was to be expected. That said, it’s not like Boston’s next opponent was some cellar dweller that could be easy to overlook. The Hurricanes are one of the best teams in the NHL (they’re now tied for the league’s third-best record), so it still shouldn’t have been that hard to get up for this one.
It seemed like it was, though. Both teams looked disjointed in a sloppy first period, but the Hurricanes got to their game in the second, while the Bruins still could not. The majority of the middle frame was spent in the Boston end, with Carolina outshooting the Bruins 13-7 and building up a 2-0 lead on a pair of blue-collar rebound goals that came off extended offensive-zone possessions.
The Bruins pushed a bit in the third with 14 shots on goal, but couldn’t convert on a gotta-have-it power play with 5:21 to go. Old friend Taylor Hall made it 3-0 shortly after that, before Riley Tufte at least helped the Bruins avoid the shutout by scoring a power-play goal with 10 seconds left. It was Tufte’s first goal as a Bruin.
Sturm isn’t looking for excuses, but Boston’s injury woes were certainly a factor here. In addition to McAvoy, the Bruins are also currently without Elias Lindholm, Casey Mittelstadt and Viktor Arvidsson, all of whom had been playing on their top two lines.
No Bruins line really generated much of anything Monday, necessitating some in-game shuffling from Sturm as he tried to find any kind of spark. The top power-play unit, down two regulars in McAvoy and Arvidsson (who himself was a replacement for Lindholm on that unit), looked discombobulated all night. The defense, now needing the likes of Andrew Peeke, Henri Jokiharju and Mason Lohrei (playing his off side Monday) to step up on the right side with McAvoy out, struggled mightily against one of the NHL’s best forechecking and cycling teams Monday.
To make matters worse, the Bruins’ best players – with the possible exception of goalie Jeremy Swayman – weren’t at their best Monday. David Pastrnak and Morgan Geekie combined for just three shots on goal and five shot attempts. Hampus Lindholm was a minus-2 and struggled running the power play. Nikita Zadorov was a minus-1 and took two penalties.
The Bruins believe they can be better than what they showed Monday, even with so many injuries. They will need to be as they head out on this four-game road trip to face a Ducks team that is playing like one of the top teams in the West right now, a Kings team that is solid as usual, a still-rebuilding Sharks team that is finally showing some real improvement, and an Islanders team that is starting to climb up the East standings.
“We have huge belief in all the guys in this organization,” Hampus Lindholm said postgame. “Of course you want all those guys out there with you playing, but we gotta have guys step up for them. That's the way the league works. Someone else goes in, someone else gets a chance to go out there and shine. So, you gotta have that mentality. If we play Bruins hockey, I think anyone can be successful here on this team.”