Boston Bruins: Jake DeBrusk Sticks it to Former Team With Game-Winning Goal

Two games into the Joe Sacco interim era behind the Boston Bruins bench, they were 2-0-0 winning a pair of low-scoring games over the Utah Hockey Club, 1-0, and the Detroit Red Wings, 2-1. While they have gotten back to their defensive ways, one problem is still an issue, scoring goals.

Tuesday night at the TD Garden, the Black and Gold's scoring woes continued in a 2-0 loss to the Vancouver Canucks on a goal by, yes, you guessed it, former Bruin Jake DeBrusk. It was a second-period power-play goal. With the way this season is going, it's such a fitting result.

Boston outshot Vancouver, 33-15, and yes, you're reading that right. Kevin Lankinen turned away everything that was sent his way and a lot of shots were seen, which made it easy for him to make saves. Any rebounds he left, his teammates did a nice job of clearing them or tying up the Bruins in front of the net. Here is some reaction from another frustrating loss in 2024-25 for the Bruins.

Gut reactions from Bruins loss to Canucks

• One thing the Bruins still do is make passes to players who are standing still. It happened multiple times against the Canucks. It most famously happened in an overtime loss to the St. Louis Blues on Nov. 16.
• One sequence early in the second period sums up the Bruins scoring troubles. David Pastrnak had a breakaway off a nice backhanded pass from Pavel Zacha but was stopped by Lankinen. The puck was bouncing around the Vancouver net, which was open, and Boston still couldn't score.
• Again, who is surprised that DeBrusk scored in his return to Boston? It's such a Bruins thing this year.
• Mason Lohrei has looked a lot better since the coaching change, playing more freely.
• Do you find yourself watching the Bruins and thinking they aren't scoring tonight? Had that feeling against the Canucks.
• Struggling at scoring goals, the Bruins need to win battles in front of the opponent's goal, like DeBrusk did, to score goals. They can't even do that now.
• If the Bruins aren't going to score at even strength, then they must cash in on the power play. They can't even do that now. Lots of chances and lots of shots blocked or shot directly at the goalies.
• The only way the Bruins are going to get out of this scoring slump is with puck-luck, something they haven't had much of this season.

It doesn't get any easier for the Bruins who left for New York right after the game for a game against the Islanders Wednesday for a tough back-to-back. The Islanders were sitting back Tuesday night watching the Bruins an Canucks waiting for the Black and Gold and will be well rested.