Since firing Jim Montgomery and promoting Joe Sacco to interim head coach in mid-November, the Boston Bruins have been relatively successful. Leading into Tuesday’s (Dec. 10) game against the Winnipeg Jets, the Bruins boasted a 7-2-0 record in the nine games with the new bench boss, potentially signifying a turning point to a season that has been largely disappointing to date. Winnipeg, one of the league’s top teams, humbled a lot of those hopes for a turning point as they dominated the Bruins with five third-period goals en route to an 8-1 blowout win.
Bruins’ Recent Success Hidden Behind Weak Competition
Wins are wins and when you’re battling on the line of .500 hockey, any win – be it against a struggling or contending team – is massive. Boston lacked any real winning streak through the first two months of the season, often winning one or two games before following it with a pair of losses immediately after. For the first time, the Bruins strung together three or more wins consecutively, winning four straight games in the week of Dec. 1-7. While that is great and boosted the confidence of both the team and the fanbase, the quality of competition in those wins caused some concern.
Related: Jets Steamroll Bruins in Chaotic 8-1 Win
In each of the wins since Sacco took over, Boston’s opponents were not in a playoff spot at the time of the game with the worst being the Montreal Canadiens and Chicago Blackhawks who both sit near the bottom of their respective conferences. Two of the three defeats in the same time span (Vancouver Canucks and Winnipeg Jets) are playoff teams while the other loss was to a fellow-teetering Pittsburgh Penguins team.
So far, the Bruins are a combined 6-8-1 against teams with 14 wins or more (roughly the .500 average in the NHL). In those 15 games, Boston has been outscored 59-36 (minus-27 goal differential) and three of the six wins came in overtime, meaning they only won three regulation games – simply not good enough. Only eight teams have lost more games against teams with 14 or more wins and only two of those are also in a playoff spot of their own (Canucks and Los Angeles Kings). On the flip side, Boston has a 9-4-2 record against the teams with less than 13 wins. Even in that, they’ve only outscored their opponents in those games 40-37 (plus-4 goal differential). The points are coming from weaker competition without a doubt.
By both raw points and points percentage, Boston is currently in a playoff spot, beating out the New York Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers by points percentage to sneak into the first wild card spot. Of course, playoffs don’t start in December – which is a good and bad thing for the Bruins in this case. Clearly, they have a tougher time against the higher competition in the league and even in the wins over the not-so-good teams, they’re barely getting by.
Bruins Roster Is Simply Not Good Enough
Sacco changed something with the team, there is a clear difference from the first handful of games to the last ten games, but losing to Winnipeg in such drastic fashion showed how the limitations of the Bruins go deeper than schemes and game plans, but are more so around the roster constructed by general manager Don Sweeney. Even after an explosive offseason signing two of the biggest free agent fish, the roster is lacking needs and it’s clear the departures have hurt more than the additions.
Nikita Zadorov and Elias Lindholm have severely underperformed their expectations and while Zadorov has improved slightly here and there, Lindholm has continually looked off and his poor start is a large contributing factor to Boston’s mediocrity. The Bruins had the hopes and expectations that he would come in and immediately be the true first-line center, ideally beside David Pastrnak and Pavel Zacha. That has failed two months in, as Lindholm has only three goals and 13 points in 30 games played. Meanwhile, in Vancouver, ex-Bruin Jake DeBrusk is thriving with 13 goals and 22 points in 27 games.
Sweeney inadvertently hurting an already subpar offense has been a massive issue and is continually apparent each game. Offense was not the only bad thing in the loss to Winnipeg on Tuesday, but ignoring the eight goals for a moment, only one goal for yet again is abysmal and the league-worst power play continues to sit at below 13% on the season, even though Pastrnak finally buried a one-timer as the game’s only goal.
David Pastrnak needed this one: pic.twitter.com/Hw4UzD9mTo
— Evan Marinofsky (@EvanMarinofsky) December 11, 2024
A 7-3-0 record in the last ten games will blur the need to acquire more offensive talent, whether that is internal with the recall of Matt Poitras or the long-desired Fabian Lysell debut or perhaps it comes from an outside source, shipping out the likes of Lysell or Georgii Merkulov to get a scoring forward to bring some spark. Defensively is far from perfect, nor is the goaltending, but not much will or can be done with that considering the assets Boston has on the back end and the fact that Hampus Lindholm is still sidelined with an injury.
15-12-3 may be a good enough record to sit third in the Atlantic Division in mid-December, but banking on the rest of the Eastern Conference to continue with their struggling play is a massive gamble. The gap is small enough that only a couple teams need to get hot and Boston will quickly be on the outside looking in. Waiting until the March trade deadline may be too late and by that point, it may be wiser to just sell the expiring assets and re-tool heading into the offseason. Bruins management, especially Sweeney who may just be on a hot seat if Boston fails to reach the playoffs, does not want to make those moves – so adding in assets before the new year is the smarter, more effective thing to do.
Remainder of West Road Trip Will Be Critical
Tuesday’s game against the Jets was game one of a five-game western swing that takes them through Seattle, Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton – three of the four being top ten in the Western Conference while the Kraken are 11th. Not only will just winning those games – or at the bare minimum earning points – be a must, but rebounding after an 8-1 smacking with strong performances will show that the first nine games of Sacco’s tenure were closer to what we can expect over the one Winnipeg game.
If the Bruins had any confidence rolling, it was likely put to a screeching halt or at least heavily slowed down. Showing some fight in the third period with Frederic, Zadorov and Mark Kastelic dropping the gloves to at least win the physical war shows the locker room at least has some heart and drive left in it. Does that win hockey games? No. But it makes it seem like they care, something they seemed to lack in the final weeks of Jim Montgomery in Boston.
It feels like it’s being said time and time again, but this next stretch of hockey might make or break the season for the Bruins. Succeed and playoffs are a real possibility. Barely squeak by and it’s a coin flip. Outright fail and it might be selling time in March. It’s time to see what they’re truly made of.
