Bruins hit with a dose of reality in return from break

On Thursday night, TD Garden hosted maybe the best hockey any of us have ever seen. On Saturday night, it was the site of a harsh dose of reality for the Boston Bruins, who lost to the Anaheim Ducks 3-2 in overtime in their first game back from the 4 Nations Face-Off break.

The past two weeks may have been awesome for the sport of hockey, but they did not prove to be some magical reset that might save the Bruins' season. Instead, it was nothing but bad news for Boston.

Charlie McAvoy suffered a shoulder injury playing for Team USA, one that was initially misdiagnosed and was then followed by an infection. There is currently no timetable for his return.

The Bruins had hoped to get Hampus Lindholm back after the break, but he didn't even practice this week as he continues to recover from a fractured kneecap. His return no longer seems imminent.

Oh, and the Bruins now have just six games to go before the March 7 trade deadline.

They really needed everything to break just about perfectly coming out of this layoff if they were going to have any chance of convincing the front office that this is a team worth adding to, or even keeping intact.

That didn't happen with the McAvoy and Lindholm injury situations, and it didn't happen on the ice Saturday night. The Bruins started the game slow and sloppy, and found themselves trailing 2-0 after 20 minutes while giving up 17 shots in the first period.

On Anaheim's first goal, Mason Lohrei made a poor decision in the neutral zone, stepping up for a hit but missing both the body and the puck. That led to a 3-on-1 behind him and an easy tap-in finish for Trevor Zegras.

On the second, the Bruins gave up way too easy a zone entry despite having all five guys back, and then Pavel Zacha lost Frank Vatrano in coverage, leading to another backdoor tap-in. The home team was greeted by boos as they left the ice for the first intermission.

"At that point, we deserved it," Elias Lindholm said of the boos. "We knew we played bad. Obviously, when it happens, you come into the locker room and everyone's pissed off and wants to be better. At that time, we deserved to get booed. They know hockey here, and obviously we weren't playing nearly good enough."

The Bruins, to their credit, did battle back. David Pastrnak set up Elias Lindholm for a power-play goal midway through the second, extending Pastrnak's point streak to a career-long 14 games in the process. Then with 1:11 left in the game and an extra attacker on the ice, Mason Lohrei set up Morgan Geekie for the game-tying goal to send it to overtime and salvage a point.

They didn't get a second point thanks to another breakdown in the 3-on-3 overtime. The Bruins got caught with two players chasing the same Duck to the boards, allowing one pass through them to create a 2-on-1. Jeremy Swayman made the first save, but Leo Carlsson buried the rebound.

This is now three straight losses for the Bruins dating back to before the break. You can point to injuries or make excuses about being rusty or acknowledge that the Ducks have actually been playing pretty good hockey of late (they've now won seven of their last eight) or find a silver lining in the fact that Boston at least got one point, but ultimately the fact remains that the Bruins have lost three in a row at a point in the season where they really can't afford to do that.

The Red Wings and Senators – two of the teams directly ahead of the Bruins in the wild-card race – also lost on Saturday (Detroit in overtime, Ottawa in regulation). The Blue Jackets, also just ahead of Boston, won. Just from a pure standings perspective, the Bruins are still right there in the playoff race. They didn't really lose any ground Saturday. But they also didn't make any up.

The Bruins' decision on whether to buy, sell, retool, etc. isn't just about whether they're technically still in the hunt, though. It's about whether they can make a real run. It's about whether the front office's priority should be trying to maximize this season, or looking to the future and trying to better position themselves for next season and beyond.

Nights like Saturday, on the heels of bad injury news (not to mention an injury scare to Brad Marchand during Saturday's game, although he did return), make it increasingly feel like the Bruins' reality is that it's just not going to happen for them this season.