The Boston Bruins lost brutally to the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday night, conceding nine as they went down 9-3.
It’s fair to say there wasn’t a whole lot good about the Boston Bruins’ performance; they looked lackadaisical, worn-out and just plain beat-up, which in turn allowed the Canucks to beat up on them.
These sorts of games only seem to happen once a season thankfully and the Boston Bruins have straight-up owned up to the fact that they weren’t good enough and the Vancouver Canucks, on the day, were simply the better team.
We break down the good (not that there was much of it), the bad and a whole lot of ugly from what we saw at Rogers Place.
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The good
You’d have to put the three goals down as perhaps the only good for the Boston Bruins in this game. Chris Wagner grabbed a first goal in eighteen games which will no doubt be good for his confidence. Bottom-line point production is always high-value after all.
Beyond that, of course the other good point was going to be David Pastrnak; he grabbed a double taking his goals for the season to 45 and keeping him easily on target to blow past the fifty mark.
Although it’s no reason to celebrate; you could also see good in the fact that the Tampa Bay Lightning also lost thus leaving the gap between us and second-place in the Atlantic Division the same.
The bad
There was plenty of bad; Zdeno Chara going after Tyler Myers was bad. After all, the hit on Karson Kuhlman wasn’t really that questionable. It merely looked like a tall guy not managing to check the right spot. Surely of all players, Chara knows how hard that is sometimes.
Looking to the score sheet and realising that it was a player the Boston Bruins were rumored to be in for grabbing two goals and an assist is a little demoralising too. Here’s hoping that Ondrej Kase turns out just as good as Tyler Toffoli seems to be for the Canucks.
I would call it ugly, but neither Tuukka Rask nor Jaroslav Halak necessarily played dreadfully. It was one of those nights where everything was going to go in, regardless.
Speaking on the Boston Bruins official website, Tuukka Rask put it quite succinctly:
"“From the goalies perspective,” began Tuukka Rask. “It’s one of those when it rains, it pours type of things. It’s not bouncing, it’s not. It doesn’t matter if it’s 2-1 or 9-3 or 15-3, it’s a loss. You move on and try to keep it tight next game. I think that’s the only way to try and approach it.” (Bruins’ official site)"
The ugly
It sounds odd to say this given how impressive our power-play units have been for the most part this season, but the Boston Bruins’ power-play on this occasion was plain ugly.
Likewise, the defensive effort in general. Of course, there were some nasty bounces and you can’t stop them all, but to concede nine goals plain and simple isn’t good enough.
Tiredness is a factor; just look at the level of intensity against the Calgary Flames the night before and knowing that the team then had to fly to the West Coast and reset, it was always going to be a challenge.
As bad as this result was though; it provides the team the perfect chance to cast their eyes in the mirror and realise the defeat is on them.
Our next game, against Calgary once more but back in more homely confines, will be telling. You’d expect every single Boston Bruins player to come out raring to go, wanting to desperately shake off a humiliating defeat. No more ugly, just good and bad please!