Boston Bruins: B’s Lost In Translation.
The Boston Bruins have yet to find a win this season. For the third straight game, the Bruins fell apart. The Black and Gold allowed the Tampa Bay Lightning to score six times, and even the presence of captain Zdeno Chara couldn’t turn the tide. The Bruins are now at the bottom of Atlantic, and Cam Neely is starting to wonder if big changes need to be made soon.
Claude Julien‘s job could be vacated as early as Thanksgiving. Tuukka Rask (Rask’s goals against average is 4.72, and his save percentage is .846. That’s bad for a beer league, and wholly unacceptable for the NHL.) is playing terrible hockey right now. Half the team is in the same boat as their goaltender. Zac Rinaldo is playing better hockey than half the Bruins are right now.
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The Bruins used to rely on the fundamentals of defensive-minded hockey. The B’s relied on a strong commitment to playing three-zone, two-way hockey. So far, the Black and Gold have shown none of those previous strengths.
“The amount of goals [allowed], from the goaltender on out, defense, the forwards coming back, we’ve just got to be better,” said a deflated Claude Julien after the game. “[Defense] used to be our strength and right now it’s our weakness. Those goals against are definitely our fault. We could handle those situations better. That goal they scored from the slot area, we had the numbers coming back and we didn’t pick up the right guys from the neutral zone.
“If we’re not gonna get the puck in deep, we might as well eat it. When they come back and they score those goals from – the shorthanded goal, we’re making a risky play at the blue line. We have to get better in those areas. It’s one mistake after another. A lot of [the three losses] is us shooting ourselves in the foot.”
The Bruins started strong out early, putting up two power-play goals. Then, the B’s fell back on their recent patterns. The Bruins failed to engage in an effective defense, and Tuukka Rask played one of his worst games ever while wearing the spoked ‘B’.
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“The amount of goals we’re giving up is uncharacteristic of this group,” said forward Chris Kelly. “Regardless of how many new faces there is, Boston has always been a good defending team. Right now that doesn’t seem to be the case. We really need to concentrate and be professional, and realize that we have to be prepared to play for 60 minutes, and realize that there’s a system in place.”
Concentration and professionalism has certainly been lacking in the Bruins. While players like David Krejci, David Pastrnak, and Torey Krug have done their best to stand up for the team, a majority of the team have not been playing at a NHL level. (It certainly didn’t help that Patrice Bergeron went to the box twice against the Lightning, taking the Bruins best penalty killer out of action.)
“I think [it’s] just knowing what your job is,” said Kelly. “Everyone has a job to do and everyone can do their job well, or they wouldn’t be here. It’s just if you have any questions about the system, not knowing the system, you know…any gray areas…I think everyone’s here to help and fill that [void]. I think once those gray areas are gone, you’re going to see this team really thrive and do well because we have a great group in here. I really have a good feeling about the group we have in the room, and there are just maybe some gray areas that we just need to correct.”
The team will need a lot more than good feelings to right the ship. They will need to fall back on what made the team great.