From the moment the Boston Bruins started to turn things around under interim head coach Joe Sacco, there was one game that everyone was circling: Dec. 10 against the Winnipeg Jets.
The Bruins did what they needed to do during Sacco’s first nine games: Play better hockey and rack up points during a stretch that saw them play eight of nine games against non-playoff teams, which they did by going 7-2-0.
But that 10th game was always going to be the first real test. The Jets have undeniably been one of the best teams in the NHL this season, even with a bit of a recent skid factored in. This was going to be the test of whether the Bruins’ improvement against lesser competition could hold up against the best.
It did not. The Bruins failed Tuesday’s test in spectacular fashion, getting run off the ice in an 8-1 beatdown.
There was so much bad to cover here, but we’ll boil it down to three of the biggest factors: Penalty trouble, defensive breakdowns, and a lopsided goalie battle.
Penalty trouble
The Bruins had been playing much more disciplined hockey under Sacco. Entering Tuesday, they had not given an opponent more than three power-play opportunities in seven straight games, a drastic improvement from the four, five or six they were consistently giving away earlier in the season.
The undisciplined play returned on Tuesday, though, as the Bruins gave the Jets six power plays, leading to three Winnipeg goals.
Trent Frederic took the first penalty, for interference, just 25 seconds into the game. But the Bruins killed that and then started to play pretty well at 5-on-5 for about an eight-minute stretch. That would be the last time the Bruins could feel remotely good about their play Tuesday.
A Brandon Carlo double-minor for high-sticking swung momentum to the Jets and set up their first power-play goal, with Vladislav Namestnikov poking the puck in after it pinballed around Jeremy Swayman’s crease.
The Bruins’ next penalty was admittedly a bad call, with David Pastrnak going off for a high-stick on a play where Jets defenseman Logan Stanley actually got hit in the face with his own stick. But the Bruins still failed to kill it, with a PK breakdown leaving a wide-open cross-slot pass from Josh Morrissey to Mark Scheifele for a one-time finish.
Charlie McAvoy took two penalties in the third period as the game really got away from the Bruins. The Jets completed the power-play trifecta on the first of those two man advantages, with Alex Iafallo deflecting a Neal Pionk shot off Carlo and in.
The Bruins had surrendered just two power-play goals total in their last 12 games before Tuesday. The Jets’ power play, which ranks second in the NHL on the season, was actually in a 2-for-18 slump over their last six games. Tuesday, however, turned into a get-right game for Winnipeg’s man advantage, and a big step back for the Bruins’ penalty kill and general discipline.
Defensive breakdowns
Another hallmark of Sacco’s first nine games was the Bruins’ improved defensive structure and puck management. That collapsed on Tuesday, though, as the Bruins reverted to making the kinds of mistakes that killed them earlier in the season.
On Winnipeg’s second goal of the game, all three Boston forwards on the ice – Pastrnak, Brad Marchand and Elias Lindholm – got caught flying the defensive zone before the Bruins actually secured possession, leaving defensemen Mason Lohrei and Andrew Peeke stranded 3-on-2 deep in their own zone.
On the fourth, Marchand turned the puck over just inside his own blue line, leading to another quick 3-on-2 for the Jets and a goal for Kyle Connor. That came 1:15 into the third period and effectively killed any hope the Bruins might have had for a comeback.
“We made it an easy night for them,” Pastrnak said. “They were just doing what they want today. A lot of penalties, so they were on the power play. There’s a lot of defensive mistakes 5-on-5. Their whole team is feeling good about themselves, because we gave it to them.”
Marchand said after the game that, despite the Bruins’ 7-2-0 run, he could sense a game like this coming based on some practices that he felt were not good enough.
“This was coming. Our practices have been sloppy,” Marchand said. “Our execution has been off there, and it bleeds into games. The way you practice is how you play. It starts there, and we weren’t good enough. So, we need to do a better job of being good in practice, and that will translate to games.”
At least Marchand made sure to include himself in that, because he was as guilty as anyone Tuesday night.
Lopsided goalie battle
How much of a difference is there between the United States’ No. 1 goalie for February’s 4 Nations Face-Off and their No. 3? On Tuesday, there was a big difference.
Connor Hellebuyck, who could be on his way to a second straight Vezina Trophy, was very good for Winnipeg, especially early on when the game was still close. Point-blank saves on Marchand and Marc McLaughlin a minute apart in the first period highlighted his night.
Jeremy Swayman, on the other hand, was not very good. He gave up a career-high eight goals on 35 shots. Obviously, he got hung out to dry on some of those. But a few were saves he should have made.
On the Jets’ fourth goal, the backbreaker early in the third period, Kyle Connor actually put his shot towards the middle of the net as Swayman was moving across, but it still found a hole under Swayman’s arm.
A few minutes later, Gabriel Vilardi beat Swayman clean blocker-side off the rush from above the hashmarks. The seventh goal was an impossible angle shot from the corner that somehow squeezed between Swayman and the post.
Maybe Swayman had already given up by that point with the game well out of reach, but that doesn’t exactly make it any more acceptable to give up a goal like that. And Swayman also shared in the blame for the game getting out of hand in the first place.
“I think some of the goals I let in, I know I can stop,” Swayman said. “That’s something that I hold myself as a standard, and when you let those in, it’s not a great feeling. So I want to make sure that doesn’t happen again, and staying sharp and playing my game. I know that I can stop those goals, so that’s what I’m going to do and push forward.”
Marchand was asked after the game if he felt for Swayman, with the suggestion being that Swayman didn’t deserve his fate, but the Bruins captain did not let his goalie off the hook.
“Not really,” Marchand said. “Everyone had a bad night. He was part of it. He's not singled out. I don't think anyone can look themselves in the mirror and say that they had a good game. So, he's part of the group. He's part of the bad loss.”
Marchand is right, but that’s still not something you often hear any player say about their goalie. Even if everyone knows the goalie wasn’t good enough, usually skaters will give the media a cliché answer along the lines of, “He wasn’t the problem. We weren’t good enough in front of him.”
After a rough start to the season, Swayman had been trending up since the coaching change, with a 4-2-0 record and .918 save percentage in his last six starts entering Tuesday. There had still been a couple goals in recent games, though, where Swayman got caught scrambling after overcommitting. He still hadn’t quite looked like the dominant goalie he was most of last season, especially in the playoffs.
And now Tuesday night marks a big step back for Swayman. He now ranks dead last in the NHL in goals saved above expected this season (-11.6), according to MoneyPuck. It once again leaves him searching for a bounce-back, and it reopens the door for a conversation about whether the Bruins should be playing Joonas Korpisalo more often. Korpisalo is 5-1-1 with a .927 save percentage in his last eight games (seven starts), but has now once again gone more than a week since his last appearance.