Winslow Townson-USA TODAY Sports
Puck Prose
The Boston Bruins struggled once again in their third game of the season in a 6-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Bruins started off strong, scoring the first two goals of the game, and both with their first two man advantages. Unfortunately, inconsistency was the downfall of the Bruins once again and the Lightning scored two goals in a span of a minute and nine seconds. The Bruins next man-advantage didn’t go as well as the previous two, resulting in no goals for the Bruins, and one short-handed breakaway goal from Lightning forward
Brian Boyle. The Bruins did end up scoring three goals with the man-advantage in the game, which can be seen as the lone bright spot of the entire game.
The Bruins hurt themselves with three goaltender interference penalties in the game, and the Lightning capitalized by scoring two goals on the power play. Zdeno Chara‘s return to the lineup didn’t lead to positive results as the Bruins may have hoped, and Tuukka Rask allowed six goals, bringing his goal total for the season to 15 in just three games. Claude Julien described it best by saying “We’ve got to be better defensively. … We’ve just got to be better. It used to be our strength & right now, it’s our weakness.” The Bruins have had a few bright spots from their young defenders in Torey Krug, Joe Morrow and Colin Miller, but the end-result of each game has been abysmal to say the least.
More from Bruins News
- Bruins release Prospects Challenge roster, schedule Tuesday
- Bruins bringing back familiar forward on tryout contract
- The Bruins should take a look at these four free agents
- NHL Network lists Ullmark as sixth-best goalie in the league
- The Lasting Legacy of David Krejci
The Bruins aren’t ready to shut the door on the season yet, and Bruins fans shouldn’t either. Patrice Bergeron said “We have to realize we have to be a lot better, but there’s a lot of games ahead of us and we have to stay strong.” Three games aren’t enough to totally condemn a team, but the Bruins do need to tighten up in the defensive zone and work harder at possessing the puck in the neutral zone. “Obviously we believe in this group, but as for right now, it (stinks) losing. So we’ve got to do something about that.” David Krejci said “That was our team—we used to be good in third periods. Then before you know it, they put the fifth goal in the net…It’s frustrating.” Frustrating is probably the best word to use, as the Bruins fans and players are all feeling varying degrees of that frustration.
“At some point in the game we stopped respecting the gameplan & we got into trouble. That’s when teams will take advantage.” – Zdeno Chara
The Bruins are aware their play isn’t tolerable, and hopefully the appropriate changes will be made to rectify this. Adam McQuaid said: “Obviously you play the game to win, but you play to play the game right. … Giving up 16 goals against is not acceptable.” While defense has clearly been an issue so far this season, Tuukka Rask, arguably the Bruins best player and their last line of defense, has been unable to keep Boston in games. “I couldn’t make the saves when we needed & let in that 1 bad goal in the 3rd period to seal the deal” He also said “You have to make good saves at the right times. You can’t afford mistakes. Today, I made maybe 2 good saves (in) the 3rd & that’s it”. The Bruins do have a solid group at forward, and if management can work towards rectifying the issues on the back-end, Tuukka Rask should eventually find a rhythm as well.
Chris Kelly seemed calm when trying to reassure the media, and fans, that the Bruins wouldn’t fall into a trend of games like this. “We need to find a way to be professional and play 60 minutes of Bruins system hockey, and I think we’ll be alright. ” He also said “We have a great group in here. I have a good feeling about the group we have in the room. Just some gray areas we need to correct” those gray areas, being defense, and the transition game. When skating between zones, the Bruins have given the puck away too many times, and that has been very costly a few times so far this season.
Follow Brandon Share-Cohen on Twitter @BShareCohen to discuss all things Bruins and sports