Boston Bruins: West Coast Wasteland
The Bruins are currently 0-3 in their west cost road
Dec 4, 2014; San Jose, CA, USA; San Jose Sharks defenseman Brent Bums (88) get tangled up with Boston Bruins left winger
Brad Marchand(63) in the third period at SAP Center at San Jose. Mandatory Credit: Lance Iversen-USA TODAY.
trip, and their game against the Sharks was probably the worst game I’ve ever seen them play. (Many of you watched the debacle of the Canadian road trip and probably agree with me here.) Tuukka Rask had absolutely no support in the second and third period. I was a little surprised that he didn’t have a Patrick Roy level meltdown after the game. If it wasn’t for Rask, it’s quite possible the Sharks would have deepened the embarrassment by bringing the goal count into the double digits.
What is causing the Bruins to have their worst losing streak this year?
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A lack of offense. There are dozens of players in the NHL with goal totals in the double digits. The Bruins have yet to have one. The Bruins scoring leaders are Brad Marchand and Reilly Smith, and they only have six goals each. Sometimes you can argue that the B’s run into hot goaltenders. In a few cases (like Jonathan Quick) that is just what happens. The rest of the time, the B’s aren’t doing what they know they have to do. Bruins know they’ve got to bring bodies to the net, but they don’t seem to do that until they start playing desperation hockey.
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No Zdeno Chara. The Bruins captain has missed seventeen of the B’s twenty six games so far this season. He’s been out of action since October 23rd, and it’s clear that the Bruins are hurting without him. The Bruins’ puck possession percentages have dropped in his abscence (55.1% with Chara, 52.1% without). The Bruins defensemen have been hampered by injuries and have had to play with multiple AHL players in several games. Only two of the Bruins blueliners have been healthy this season (Dougie Hamilton and Dennis Seidenberg).
A reduced Dennis Seidenberg. As much as I love the German Hammer, he doesn’t seem to have the fire that he used to. I’m not question his compete level, it just seems the new knee has just taking something away from his game. Seidenberg’s game (like Milan Lucic‘s) improves in the presence of Chara (or in Lucic’s case, David Krejci), and falters in his absence.
The Bruins will have the easiest of their four games tomorrow night when they take on the Arizona Coyotes. The Bruins have to have these points. If the B’s lose in regulation tomorrow, it will be their first road trip of at least four games with no points since in over fifty years (0-5-0 from October 12th-20th, 1963).