Stop me if you’ve heard this before: The Bruins fell behind, fought back in the third period, and ultimately gave the game away at the end. Yeah, it happened again, this time in a 7-5 loss to the Anaheim Ducks Thursday night at TD Garden.
Boston has now lost six straight games, all in regulation. As bad as last season was for the Bruins, they only had one such losing streak all year – and that didn’t come until March, after their trade deadline sell-off.
This has quickly devolved from moral victories (they’re showing fight!) to frustration (how unlucky was that Panthers winning goal?) to downright embarrassment. And that’s not me calling this embarrassing; listen to the players themselves.
Forward Morgan Geekie: “It's just embarrassing. I mean, to the fans, to everybody. I mean, it's just like, poor. Everything's poor.”
Defenseman Nikita Zadorov: “It's embarrassing. It's not how we want to play, how we should play, giving up so many goals every night.”
Goalie Joonas Korpisalo: “I’m embarrassed. We should all be.”
Defense was supposed to be this team’s strength. It needed to be. It hasn’t been, though. Not even close.
The Bruins have allowed four or more goals in five of these six losses. They rank 28th in the NHL in goals allowed per game (3.67). They’re 24th in expected goals against (3.49). At 5-on-5 play, they’re 26th in high-danger chances allowed (12.66 per 60 minutes).
They’re having the kinds of breakdowns and miscommunications that were supposed to be getting cleaned up this season. On the Ducks’ first goal Thursday, Mark Kastelic ran into a pick high in the defensive zone, and no one else switched onto goal-scorer Drew Helleson as he skated unbothered through the right circle.
On the second, goal-scorer Cutter Gauthier found a soft spot in the Bruins’ zone coverage in the high slot. On the third, Jeffrey Viel lost track of defenseman Jacob Trouba as Trouba beat him to a rebound. Korpisalo probably needed to stop one or both of those goals, too.
But the most devastating of all was the sixth, the winning goal in the final five minutes of the game that came just 30 seconds after the Bruins had tied the game at 5-5. In a brutal – and inexcusable – miscommunication, Mason Lohrei failed to pressure setup man Nikita Nesterenko in the corner and Charlie McAvoy failed to cover goal-scorer Troy Terry in front of the net. The two defensemen were both stuck in no man’s land between the two Ducks instead.
“Those breakdowns in big moments, that can’t happen,” coach Marco Sturm said. “Or losing battles in our own end, that can’t happen. And that's pretty much the frustrating point for me.”
It’s frustrating for everyone. Regardless of what those on the outside may have thought, the Bruins’ players and coaches were optimistic going into this season. They believed this year would be different than last year. And now, just nine games in, they know they are already facing a critical moment. They know how quickly this can spiral if they don’t right the ship as soon as possible.
“It’s tough to be glass half full, to be honest with you,” Geekie acknowledged. “I think everybody’s sick of it in here. The new guys, the guys that were here last year that went through everything and saw everybody get shipped out at the deadline. I mean, you're right, there is a lot of season left. You can't ruin your season at the start, but it can get out of hand pretty quick, and I think that’s what’s going to happen if we don’t turn things around. It’s a great group of guys in here. The reality I think we saw last year is what happens when you don't perform, and that's the way things seem to be going.”
That might sound pessimistic, but it’s just reality. Geekie was here last year. He knows the Bruins never recovered from their bad start. Their coach lost his job and numerous veterans and team leaders got traded away at the deadline, including captain Brad Marchand.
Those kinds of major shakeups probably aren’t coming just yet. Sturm needs time in his first year as coach. General manager Don Sweeney might as well fill out his own pink slip if he even thinks about another coaching change. Trades are likely a ways off as well. Sturm even downplayed the idea of shaking up the roster with a couple call-ups from Providence.
“It's hard to do changes. That’s the thing,” Sturm said. “First of all, it's early in the year. There's a roster limit we have, I have. Not too many changes will be made. You can tweak a few things, but that's about it. So, I am confident enough that these are the guys we can get, must get out of it. But I don't think too many changes can be made. Let's be honest, right? So, the guys in here, including me, the guys in this room, we have to fix it. We can't control anything else.”
Changes or not, they do have to fix it, and they have to fix it now. The Bruins have the fourth-worst record in the NHL at 3-6-0. Their schedule isn’t letting up. They get the Colorado Avalanche, one of the best teams in the league, again on Saturday. Then they have their third back-to-back of the month on Monday and Tuesday.
This isn’t a lost season just yet. But Geekie is right: it can get there pretty quickly if these losses continue to pile up.