The Bruins looked dead in the water after two periods Tuesday night, trailing the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers 2-0. All the emotions from the Brad Marchand tribute video and standing ovation had given way to a rather flat performance from Boston.
The Bruins weren’t dead, though. In fact, they only needed five minutes to tie the game in the third period thanks to goals from Pavel Zacha and Elias Lindholm. The Panthers retook the lead on a goal from Eetu Luostarinen, and the Bruins again responded with a tying goal from Morgan Geekie in an extra-attacker situation with 1:31 to go.
The Bruins and TD Garden were anything but flat in that moment. Geekie and David Pastrnak just about leapt into each other’s arms in celebration. The roof was ready to blow off the building.
And then the ever-annoying Panthers scored with 26 seconds left on a freak bounce off Andrew Peeke’s skate to win the game. Just like that, the Bruins found themselves going to bed with zero points to show for their efforts, and a fifth straight loss.
Four of those five losses have been by one goal. Four of the five have been against teams with legitimate Stanley Cup aspirations. The Bruins have fought back from multi-goal deficits to get back in the game in three of them.
One or two games like this might qualify as moral victories for a retooling team that's trying to re-establish culture and identity. But the Bruins need actual victories at this point. It was clear postgame that frustration is beginning to set in.
“It can only be encouraging for so long, right?” Geekie said. “This one stings. It's just like, we toss a few away on the road trip, and we're undisciplined, and our power play is not working. And then tonight, our penalty kill does an awesome job, and then our power play gets one on the third period, and we battle back, and it just doesn't go our way at the end. At some point, something's gotta give. I think we just gotta figure out how to play a full 60.”
And that really is the problem. The Bruins aren’t rolling over. They’ve shown some resiliency. That is a welcome change from last year, when the Bruins let games get completely away from them far too often. But they’re making too many mistakes to overcome. They’re playing well in stretches, but not start to finish.
On Tuesday, Tanner Jeannot tripped Marchand on the first shift of the game, and the Panthers power play converted 30 seconds later. Early in the second period, a mix-up between Jeannot and Mason Lohrei off a defensive-zone faceoff handed A.J. Greer goal No. 2.
After the Bruins tied it at 2-2, it was bad defense by Lohrei that allowed Luostarinen to blow past him and give Florida a 3-2 lead. The winning goal required an unlucky bounce at the end, but the initial scoring chance off the rush came because the Bruins had three forwards caught up ice who couldn’t get back in time to help defend a 3-on-2.
Eliminating any one of those mistakes probably gets them a point. Eliminating two might get them a win.
“It sucks,” Pastrnak acknowledged. “But you can’t sit on it, you know? ... Showing fight is a positive every night, but at the same time, you gotta question why we are in that position that we are. Most of the nights, it's our own doing. That's something we have to fix. We can’t be playing from behind or making those mistakes every night.
“I know it's early, but we wanted to have a good start [to the season], and we did. So, we just have to remember the way we played early on. Obviously, when the losses get stacked up on each other, it's always harder to get that win and come out, but we're gonna have to put it together. It's gonna take a team effort, so we have to come back ready to work tomorrow and fix the mistakes.”
The schedule is relentless. Thursday’s opponent, the Anaheim Ducks, might look easier on paper, but they’re currently tied for the fifth-best record in the West. Then it’s the Colorado Avalanche again on Saturday. Then they have their third back-to-back of the month on Monday and Tuesday. The Bruins need to fix those mistakes as soon as possible, or the losses will continue to stack up.
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