Appearing on TNT at the start of the second period Wednesday, Boston Bruins general manager Don Sweeney sounded like someone who wants to believe that his team may still be worth adding to before the March 7 trade deadline. But he also acknowledged the same thing team president Cam Neely did a few weeks ago: that he may have to take “a different path” if the team doesn’t show some real signs of improvement.
“Well, it's been a little unique for us this year, getting out of the gate not as fast as we would like,” said Sweeney, who has never sold at the trade deadline since taking over in 2015. “We’re in the middle of things. It's a tough exercise to sort of play both sides of the street, but that's almost every year what a general manager is required to do, and test what's out there, what's available, how you can improve, hopefully.
“We have some areas we would like to, but we have to keep an eye. We've missed Hampus Lindholm all year, at least the last 40 games, and it's affected our group. But everybody goes through injuries. You gotta battle through it, gotta find a way while I'm out there trying to improve our club. You know, if we have more injuries or we don't do the job between now and the deadline, we may have to take a different path.”
And therein lies the problem. Every time this Bruins team hints at battling through and finding a way, they quickly follow it up by not doing the job.
Add Wednesday night’s 3-2 loss to the New York Rangers to the list. On the second night of a back-to-back, the Bruins had grinded through a slow start and found a way to take a 2-1 lead into the third period thanks to two goals 16 seconds apart from David Pastrnak and Elias Lindholm. A third straight win was there for the taking, and against a fellow playoff bubble team no less.
Instead, the Bruins ended up with zero points, surrendering two third-period goals and suffering a killer regulation loss that drops them back to 11th in the Eastern Conference on points percentage.
As has been the case far too often this season, Boston lost the game on special teams. After the Bruins couldn’t capitalize on a power play that carried over from the second to the third, the Rangers tied the game 5:27 into the period, just two seconds after their own power play expired. The Bruins couldn’t get the one final clear that they needed, and Vincent Trocheck wound up getting free at the doorstep to tip in a K’Andre Miller slap pass. TNT analyst and former NHL goalie Brian Boucher believed Bruins goalie Joonas Korpisalo was at fault for losing track of Trocheck.
The Rangers got that power play on a bad call against Brad Marchand – the calls at least should have been evened up after J.T. Miller ripped off Marchand’s helmet – but no one’s going to feel sorry for the Bruins. Bad calls happen. Good teams find a way to fight through them.
The winning goal was a shorthanded tally, an absolute back-breaker with 8:06 remaining. Late in another unsuccessful power play (the Bruins would finish the game 0-for-3 with three shots on goal), Matt Poitras set up Morgan Geekie for a chance in the slot, only for Geekie to fumble the puck away and hand the Rangers a shorthanded rush the other way that Chris Kreider finished off with his 16th goal of the season.
“Disappointing,” interim head coach Joe Sacco said. “It’s a disappointing third period when you battle back and you get a 2-1 lead on the road. Just, like I said, frustrating.”
If Sweeney and the front office do end up selling or retooling or whatever you want to call it, special teams will be a big reason why. The Bruins remain stuck in 30th on the power play at a paltry 14.6%. Their penalty kill is 76.0%, 24th in the league. They have now given up eight shorthanded goals, tied for the most in the NHL. When you add everything up, the Bruins have a special teams net goal differential of minus-21, second-worst behind only the Anaheim Ducks (-23).
The 5-on-5 numbers are a little better, but still don’t offer much reason to believe this team can make a real run. They have a minus-2 goal differential at 5-on-5, tied for 17th. They’re 25th in shot differential (48.4%), 22nd in expected goals share (49.7%), and 19th in high-danger chance differential (49.3%).
To sum it all up, the Bruins are bad on special teams and mediocre at 5-on-5. That is not a recipe for springtime success. It’s a recipe for a minus-24 total goal differential, third-worst in the conference.
Sweeney doesn’t need to pick a path just yet, and he certainly doesn’t need to declare it on national television a month before the deadline. But the Bruins now have just eight games before said deadline when you factor in the upcoming two-week break for the 4 Nations Face-Off. It just isn’t a whole lot of time to change this team’s outlook or convince anyone there’s still a contender hiding under the surface.