After three days off with the Holiday Break, the Boston Bruins kicked off a pivotal five-game road trip in Western New York against the red-hot Buffalo Sabres. Winners of seven straight going into the break, and Boston lost four straight before the break, but the break didn't do anything to break either team's momentum.
Boston grabbed a 1-0 first-period lead on a David Pastrnak goal, but that would be the only goal for the Black and Gold, who allowed three second-period strikes in what was the Sabres' eighth straight win and the Bruins' fifth straight loss. Here are three takeaways from a frustrating Black and Gold loss to begin the trip.
Second period meltdown haunts the Bruins again
In Tuesday night's 6-2 loss to the Montreal Canadiens, the Bruins were tied 2-2, only to unravel by allowing four goals. After a decent first period against Buffalo with a lead, the second period was Boston's undoing.
Joonas Korpisalo got the start and surrendered three goals in 5:15, which was too much for the Bruins to overcome. Ryan McLeod tied the game, then Peyton Krebs gave them the lead for good. Defenseman Mattias Samuelsson gave Buffalo some breathing room when his shot from the point went through a screen and by Korpisalo, who never saw it. The Sabres added an empty-net goal late in the third period.
Bruins have limited scoring opportunities
Stop me if you've heard this before this year. The Bruins were badly outshot and had limited scoring chances. Boston registered nine shots on the net in the opening 20 minutes, then landed just four over the next 30 minutes. In the final 10 minutes, they had eight shots on the net, but they were not able to find the back of the net. They had the puck in the offensive zone a lot in the final 20 minutes, but not a lot of scoring chances. They can't count on Morgan Geekie and Pastrnak to score all the goals.
Bruins hurt themselves with defensive zone turnovers
The Bruins are a team that does not handle the puck well. Whether it's in the defensive end or offensive end, they lose it off their sticks easily, they make blind passes, and sometimes they just throw the puck somewhere hoping to get lucky.
To compound matters, the defensive zone coverage breakdowns are hurting, and their defense gives up the blueline too easily. They were perfect on the penalty kill, but all the little things continue to add up with goals being scored by the other team, and Boston just making it too easy at times for their opponent. They're not going to win many games playing that way.