Boston Bruins: Mistakes Resulting In Lost Points
Boston Bruins: Mistakes Resulting In Lost Points
The Boston Bruins have been trending downward over the course of their last 10 games, compiling a 2-7-1 record in that time. The loss of David Krejci to injury has very clearly impacted the Bruins game plan, but the team can’t rely on one player if they intend on being playoff contenders. Injuries are not only a possibility in professional sports, they are an inevitability. While the Bruins offense hasn’t been clicking without Krejci in the lineup, it’s also clear that the dynamic Czech center was so much more to the team than a point-producer.
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Ryan Spooner has stepped into the second line center role in place of David Krejci and he’s produced points at a more-than-adequate level; unfortunately, his play away from the puck — although improved — is simply not at the level that David Krejci‘s was, nor should anyone expect it to be. In addition to Kreji, the Bruins have been tasked with losing Chris Kelly to injury for the remainder of the season, and his contract, which has made two-way players in the Bruins’ system a very valuable and hard-to-come-by commodity.
Some of the more veteran players in the Bruins’ lineup recently spoke out and took accountability for the team’s most recent downward trend. Captain Zdeno Chara said “You have to be honest and you have to correct the mistakes we are repeatedly (making).” Chara was on the ice for all three of the Philadelphia Flyer’s goals on Wednesday night, which makes it likely that the big defenseman was shouldering as much of the blame as anyone else on the team with his comments; the Bruins have always notoriously won and lost as a team and Chara exemplified that with his comments.
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Goaltender Tuukka Rask chalked up the Bruins losing poor streak to mistakes and bad luck as well by saying “From a goaltender’s perspective, it’s just a couple of lucky bounces against me that decides the game.” He also said “Just got to stick with it and battling because we’re not playing badly.” It’s arguable whether or not the Bruins have been playing badly or not as the team has blown third period leads in consecutive games. The team has shown a lack of desperation in many instances this season, and a lackadaisical approach is something the Bruins’ cannot take if they have any ambitions of making the postseason this year.
Claude Julien clearly shares the same opinion as his players as he also attributed the Bruins losses to mistakes rather than poor play. “Mistakes end up coming back to bite you.” he concluded by saying “Right now it’s a frustrating time for our team: Missed opportunity at one end and mistakes at the other.” The Bruins have hit multiple stretches over the last few seasons where they fail to capitalize on scoring chances before ultimately slipping up and allowing a goal or two and ultimately losing the game. The Bruins aren’t only losing games, however, they’re losing games in regulation which results in a total lack of points being banked when the Bruins have games-in-hand.
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While Claude Julien and the rest of the Boston Bruins team were clearly chalking up mistakes on the ice to the Bruins recent woes, the problem actually stems much further than that. In the offseason, newly-appointed general manager Don Sweeney started off his tenure with the Bruins with a bang; trading away Dougie Hamilton, Milan Lucic, and Reilly Smith, while also stockpiling draft picks and acquiring Matt Beleskey, Jimmy Hayes, Zac Rinaldo, Jonas Gustavsson, Colin Miller and locking up Adam McQuaid long-term. What Don Sweeney failed to do, however, was acquire any form of defenseman with NHL experience outside of Matt Irwin. That was the Bruins’ biggest mistake.
It was easy to say that the Bruins had a lot of bodies on defense who seemed capable of stepping up and potentially doing something, such as Joe Morrow, Colin Miller, Zach Trotman, and even Kevan Miller and Torey Krug who had experience, but haven’t exactly established themselves as legitimate top-four defensemen. Acquiring a top-four or top-two defenseman isn’t easy or cheap, but the Bruins needed to make the acquisition of one a priority this season, especially with Dennis Seidenberg missing a large chunk of the season to start the year. While Zdeno Chara has been seen on the wrong-end of a few goals as of late, he’s still been playing at an unreal level given his age. He’s no longer a legitimate number one defenseman in terms of shut-down ability or ability to log 28 minutes or more of ice time per game, but he can easily play a major role in the Bruins defensive group as a number two defenseman or lower.
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With 40 games left to be played for the Bruins this season, they will need to make a move quickly if they want to make up for lost ground and make the playoffs. It’s no secret that the city of Boston is watching the Bruins’ with baited breath, hoping they will somehow turn their ship around and make a push for the playoffs like they have every year since 2007 with the exception of last season.