After an embarrassing 8-1 loss to the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday, a good start Thursday in Seattle should have been a given for the Boston Bruins. Instead, they got off to just about the worst start possible and went on to lose to the Kraken, 5-1.
On the very first shift of the game, David Pastrnak chased Jamie Oleksiak behind the Seattle net and clumsily high-sticked him, drawing blood in the process for a double minor. If you’re looking to your leaders to set the tone on a gotta-have-it kind of night, that’s not the way to do it.
It took the Kraken just eight seconds to make the Bruins pay thanks to some poor penalty-killing. Matty Beniers was politely given ample space to work with off the faceoff, and then Oliver Bjorkstrand got inside position on Nikita Zadorov at the net-front and tipped in Beniers’ slap pass.
The Bruins killed off the second of Pastrnak’s minors, but then took another offensive-zone penalty less than a minute later when Tyler Johnson tripped Will Borgen. Not exactly the first impression you want to make after being a healthy scratch the previous four games.
Boston technically killed off that penalty, but gave up a second goal just seconds after it expired. Charlie McAvoy had the puck on his stick with a chance to clear the zone seconds before the goal, but turned it over instead – another play the Bruins just can’t afford to have their top players making.
“We just put ourselves in a really bad spot,” Brad Marchand said postgame. “Obviously guys aren’t trying to take penalties, but when you get down two-nothing that quick in a game, it just really is deflating and gives them a ton of momentum and allows them to feel really comfortable and confident.”
If the Bruins deserve credit for anything Thursday night, it would be that they actually played pretty good hockey for about a period and a half after that disastrous start. They outshot Seattle 14-2 over a 14-minute stretch at one point, and eventually cut the lead to 2-1 on a Marchand penalty shot midway through the second. That would remain the score heading to the third.
Unfortunately for the Bruins, they completely no-showed in the third period for a second straight game. They messed up a defensive-zone switch as Vince Dunn made it a 3-1 game 3:07 into the period. Six minutes later, a Parker Wotherspoon turnover left them scrambling in their own zone, allowing Bjorkstrand to get wide open in the slot for his second goal of the night. 4-1, game over. The Kraken added a late empty-netter to finalize the score.
“We felt like after we got that first one, that we were going to get the second one,” Marchand said. “Their goalie made some big saves and kind of weathered the storm, and then we just kind of fell apart.”
Adding injury to insult was the fact that Elias Lindholm, who has now gone seven games without a point, suffered an upper-body injury in the second period and did not return. Pavel Zacha also took a shot off the foot early in the third period and only played a couple more shifts. If one or both miss any more time, the Bruins will have to call up at least one forward from Providence. Matt Poitras has eight points in his last five games there and would seem like the most logical choice.
That would be one roster shakeup. Maybe there will be others. General manager Don Sweeney did threaten trades after firing Jim Montgomery if things didn’t improve.
Things did improve for Joe Sacco’s first nine games against some weaker opponents. But the first two games of this five-game western road trip have been an unmitigated disaster for the Bruins. Marchand said Tuesday night that the team hadn’t been practicing well recently. An 8-1 loss in Winnipeg apparently didn’t light enough of a fire under them based on the way they started Thursday, and the way they once again collapsed late.
It’s all pretty inexcusable. Whatever progress that had been made under Sacco has quickly been erased. The team-wide lack of focus, energy and execution that Montgomery couldn’t solve has returned.
If it sticks around much longer, all eyes will again be shifting to Sweeney to see what he decides to do next.