Boston Bruins: What kind of streak should we expect next?

When it comes to the Boston Bruins this season, they’ve been a team that collects it’s points in very distinct streaks.

So far, we’ve seen a six-game winning streak and the eight-game winning streak that was busted a few days back when the Boston Bruins went down to the Chicago Blackhawks in over-time.

Equally, we’ve also seen a four-game losing streak and the current one is already three games. Safe to say, we’re streaky. Thankfully, we seem to turn losing results around relatively fast given that four games is the longest run of losses this season.

What’s more concerning is the streaks of conceding three or more goals. Since shutting out the Carolina Hurricanes, we’ve conceded 4, 4 and then 5 in our most recent three games. Likewise, our previous losing streak saw 5,4,2 and 4 conceded, when you account for the fact the last two were shoot-out losses.

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What it highlights is that the team fails to defend as a group during these streaks and a goaltending tandem that rivals any in the league on it’s day falls apart as a result.

Tuukka Rask and Jaroslav Halak have both proven themselves as good as any this season and can back it up with Goals Against Averages in the league’s top 10. However, they have also shown themselves as vulnerable to conceding in big bunches.

This is especially concerning when the next two teams that the Boston Bruins encounter are first and fourth in the league in terms of goals scored. The Washington Capitals and Tampa Bay Lightning are going to be no pushovers, whereas the most recent victor over the Bruins, the Ottawa Senators, really should have been.

You really have to wonder whether this season will continue in much the same manner, no one-off losses but rather losing streaks followed by recoveries and winning streaks. It’s probably not the model of consistency that Bruce Cassidy would be seeking, but so far it’s working for the Bruins.

Perhaps the biggest blessing for Boston is the fact that two winning streaks this year have gone relatively unmatched by the rest of the Atlantic Division and as a result, they still maintain a comfortable 10 point lead in the standings.

With Patrice Bergeron welcomed back to the fold, you’d have to imagine that Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak will continue as they’ve started the year and keep putting them home. If that’s the case, even without secondary scoring, the Boston Bruins should be able to start another positive streak.

While it’s hard to see a streak starting this side of Christmas; two games against the Buffalo Sabres followed by the New Jersey Devils post-Christmas might represent a chance to get something going. Of course, that is assuming we don’t underestimate our closest Atlantic rivals.

The Boston Bruins’ Christmas wish has to be for another 8-game winning streak, but right now I think we’d settle simply for a game where 3 or more goals don’t end up in our net. 3 games may be a short amount of time, but it feels like forever with the way we’ve played lately.