Boston Bruins face first real adversity of the regular season

With two-straight losses and some tough games ahead, the Boston Bruins face their first true test of the season.

The Boston Bruins started a four-game road trip on Monday that will keep away from TD Garden for the longest time since the first week of the season. The Bruins started in Ottawa, and they’ll now hit up Washington, Tampa Bay, and Florida.

Boston needed a strong start to the trip since the next three games are all against playoff teams. Despite their efforts, the Bruins left Ottawa without any points.

The Bruins fell behind the Senators early and never could catch up on the scoreboard. In a full 60-minute game, Boston trailed for almost 59 minutes.

After Monday night’s loss in Ottawa, we can say that the Bruins now face their first real adversity of the season.

Up until this point, the regulation season looked easy for the Bruins. They only had four regulation losses through 30 games. Of course there were ups and downs, but Boston overcame pretty much everything.

Now, over two months into the regular season, the Bruins deal with a two-game losing streak for only the second time this year.

The first losing streak wasn’t as bad as this most recent one. Boston lost games to Montreal and Detroit, two teams out of the playoff picture. These look like bad losses, but at least the Bruins came to play in both games. In the game against Montreal, for example, the Bruins looked like the better team, but goaltending let them down.

Also, the Bruins went back home after those two losses with a chance to turn things around quickly. As such, we can’t say they faced too much adversity with the two losses.

This time, things are different. In this most recent losing streak, Boston looked overmatched at times. Last Saturday’s loss to the Avalanche was one of the only times all season the Bruins appeared worse than their opponent. Colorado outskated Boston pretty much all night.

On Monday, Ottawa didn’t totally outplay or overwhelm Boston like Colorado did. That said, the Bruins for whatever reason couldn’t find their offense. They also made costly mistakes that pretty much handed the Senators the game.

Furthermore, during that November losing streak, the Bruins still got contributions from top players like David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand. More recently, those guys, especially Pastrnak, went cold. That makes things a little more ominous for Boston.

What’s worse is that Boston doesn’t get to go back home to make up for these recent losses. Instead, the Bruins continue this road trip, and the matchups will only get more difficult. That’s why Boston now faces some real difficulties.

We all know how tough Washington is for the Bruins. The Capitals usually have no problem with Boston’s offense, so Wednesday night’s game won’t be easy.

Boston then plays a talented Tampa Bay team the next night. Back-to-backs are always difficult, especially when there’s travel involved.

The Bruins finish up the road trip against Florida. The Panthers currently sit second in the Atlantic Division, so they present a tough test.

Here’s the deal: nobody should worry about the Bruins yet. We’re in December, over a third of the way into the season, and they only lost their fifth regulation game.

At some point, the Bruins were bound to face some adversity. Even the best teams do. They have a great chance to overcome this tough stretch and prove that they are indeed the favorites this year.