After a 10-day All-Star Break, the Boston Bruins got back into game action at the TD Garden on Saturday (Feb. 11) against the Washington Capitals. Prior to their break, the Bruins played some of their worst hockey of the season, dropping three out of their final four games, but entered the break with an impressive 5-2 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Feb. 1.
Instead of erasing the memory of the frustrating end to the first half before the All-Star Break, they continued their struggles in an alarming fashion by dropping a 2-1 decision to Washington. Is it time to sound the panic alarm? No, but finishing where they left off 10 days ago with some of the same problems should be eye-opening for the front office. Still holding the NHL’s best record at 39-8-5, here are three takeaways from just Boston’s second regulation loss on home ice this season.
Swayman Has Mixed Results In Goal
The last time Jeremy Swayman was in goal was on Jan. 28 in a 4-3 overtime loss to the Florida Panthers. Linus Ullmark played last weekend in the All-Star Game and coach Jim Montgomery gave Swayman the first start after the break. It’s safe to say that it was a start that finished with mixed results.
After allowing a first-period power play goal on a two-man advantage to Nicklas Backstrom, the former University of Maine standout kept his team in the game with some big saves. He stopped Backstrom at point-blank range later in the period and then made a nice reactionary save on a Connor Sheary slap shot. In the third period, he made a nice side-to-side save on a 2-on-1 when he stoned Alex Ovechkin. It was what happened between the first and third periods that he would like to have back.
Jakub Lauko turned the puck over in the defensive end just past the midway point of the period and Garnet Hathaway collected the puck at the top of the slot and beat Swayman with a wrist shot under the crossbar. Swayman went down on the shot, a shot that he saw with no screen in front of him, and the puck went over his shoulder. It was a case where the Bruins could have used a save and it turned out to be the game-winning goal. He finished with 21 saves, but failing to get a 22nd on Hathaway’s shot was the difference between a regulation loss and gaining a point and going into overtime.
Bruins Power Play Continues Struggles
Heading into the break, the Bruins’ power play went scoreless in their final 14 opportunities. Against the Capitals, it picked up where it left off, going scoreless and looking unorganized. To be fair, three of their chances were not for the full two minutes, but even with their full chance in the third period, it was more of the same, a whole lot of nothing.
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On their full two-minute advantage in the third period, they had a good amount of offensive zone time, but did not generate a high-danger scoring threat except for a Patrice Bergeron one-timer from the top of the slot that Washington goalie Darcy Kuemper made a nice save on. Sandwiched around that, there was a lot of pass along the perimeter, no real net-front presence, and David Pastrnak passing up shooting chances for a slap pass looking for a deflection that never came. They are now 0-for-18 and are really struggling. Jake DeBrusk is getting closer to a return to the lineup and maybe he can ignite the power play with his net-front presence, but there is a lot of work that needs to be done and done soon to fix it.
Bruins Playing With No Confidence
Right now, the Bruins are playing with no confidence. It happened before the break and happened again against the Capitals. They outshot Washington 28-23 in the game, but a lot of the shots were from a tough angle and there were many instances of them overpassing on the play and frustration showed late in the first period with Brad Marchand.
Marchand laid a cross-ice pass to Trent Frederic who had a clear shooting angle on Kuemper, but the young forward tried to return the pass through some bodies and it never got to Marchand, who was yelling as he skated off the ice. Late in the second period, Connor Clifton made a nice individual play to set up Nick Foligno for the Bruins’ only goal when he made a pass to his veteran teammate from behind the net and Foligno was able to get it in front of the net and flip it over a sprawling Kuemper.
In the third period, the Bruins went 12 minutes without a shot on goal and a lot of that had to do with Washington’s ability to stand them up at the blue line and blocking shots. When Boston was clicking at the beginning of the season, they were a shoot-first team, something that clearly they have not been during this skid. They are making an extra pass and a lot of times the pass isn’t even getting to who it was intended for and it’s both the forwards and the defenseman that are guilty of it. It’s something you thought you would never see with this team.
Things are not going to get any easier for the Bruins who hit the road for a two-game road trip against the Dallas Stars and Nashville Predators. There is a chance that DeBrusk makes his return on the trip, but it’s going to take more than just inserting the 14th overall pick in the 2015 Entry Draft into the lineup to fix some of their problems. The first step is getting their confidence back, then everything else to fix itself from there.
