Recap: Bruins blanked by Flames 4-0 in ugly performance

It’s bad enough the Boston Bruins put together what is likely the ugliest performance of the 2021 season where the top players didn’t show up, the special teams were not clicking and goaltending was not at its strongest.

To make matters worse, the man in the crease on the other end, who finished with a 27-save shutout, was on the Bruins roster last season ad was traded away.

Dan Vladar, a former Bruins goaltending prospect, and the Calgary Flames blanked the Bruins 4-0 on Sunday. It was his second shutout of the season and the Flames’ seventh total.

Boston dropped to 9-6-0 with the loss on the second game of the back-to-back. Jeremy Swayman made 27 saves. The Flames continue their hot start, moving to 11-3-5.

1st period

Things got off to a not so great start with Boston College Eagle Johnny Gaudreau scoring 89 seconds into the game.

Yeah, Calgary’s social is right. Bad rebound control out of Swayman that kicked the puck right to Gaudreau. That puck has to go to the corner or swallowed up in front.

It was a slow rest of the period for the Bruins, who generated a couple opportunities, but nothing dangerous. The Flames held a 1-0 lead into the intermission.

2nd period

The Flames got another goal in the second out of a Boston College Eagle as Noah Hanafin tapped in an easy rebound to extend the lead to two.

Another god awful rebound by Swayman. This was definitely up there with the Flyers game from earlier in the season as his biggest dud to date. Oh, and Hanafin has 11 points in his carer against his hometown Bruins. Very nice.

Despite it being only a two-goal game, the lead felt astronomical at this point. The offense wasn’t generating much and when there was chances, Vladar was there.

3rd period

Boston had a prime opportunity in the opening minutes to bring the game within one, with the Flames taking an early penalty to put the Bruins on the power play.

Instead, the Bruins gave up a 2 on 0 and the puck was in the back of their net.

What the hell more can you ask out of Swayman on this one. He stopped three shots from Dillon Dube before Andrew Mangiapane finally put it in.

To make matters worse and really put the game out of reach, the FLames scored 63 seconds later to make it 4-0.

Charlie Coyle just was a half second too late at swiping the puck out. But that one is on Swayman.

Buzzer goes and it’s a 4-0 loss. The second time this season the Bruins have been shutout.

Notes

• Just nothing going at all from the first line. Bruce Cassidy was critical of them after the game, and rightfully so. They were not good in any facet of the game
• And this little tidbit from Conor Ryan of the Boston Sports Journal is definitely not great
  • “In the 5:46 of 5v5 TOI in which Patrice Bergeron and Elias Lindholm (1C vs. 1C) were on the ice at the same time, Calgary outscored Boston, 1-0, and held a 6-0 edge in shots on goal”
• Now in defense of the first line, this again really exploited this team’s issue with depth. The first line is not going to be on all 82 games. You need the other three to pick up the slack, and it wasn’t there. This team, at this point, will only go as far as 63, 37 and 88 will take them and only that far
• Rough night for Swayman. That’s probably an understatement. His rebound control might have been the worst its been all year. Those first two goals are on him, and it wasn’t just on those two that his rebounds were bad. And that fourth one he can’t let squeak by
• After being the offensive hero on Saturday, Derek Forbort was back to being a subpar defender
• You know who looked good – Taylor Hall. He was buzzing around early on and creating a few chances in the first. He fell off like the whole team did, but it was good to see it’s there for Hall, he just needs to be more consistent
• Jakub Zboril and Anton Blidh are making it hard not to put them in the lineup. Zboril especially. He doesn’t do anything extremely flashy, but he’s not making mistakes. Blidh plays hard every shift and was even diving around at the end of the second period to block shots. Cassidy is going to have a decision to make when Trent Frederic comes back
• Calgary was also on a back-to-back so that excuse is out the window
• Vladar was very solid. Bruins fans will overreact obviously that they shouldn’t have traded him away and kept him instead of signing Linus Ullmark. Think whatever you want, did you really want to go into this season with two goaltenders having a combined total of 15 games played in the NHL?
• For Calgary, seven shutouts in 19 games is insane. Absolutely insane. Vladar and Jacob Markstrom are first and third respectively in the league in goals against and save percentage
• Mangiapane is up to 15 goals this season. He’s having a breakout year

Boston has a couple days off before heading to upstate New York to take on the Sabres in Buffalo. It consistently seems like two steps forward and one step back. If it’s even two steps, maybe just one.

Shake it off, turn to Buffalo and get back in the win column.