After struggling through a 1-3-1 homestand before the Christmas Break, the Boston Bruins were facing an important road trip following the break. A five-game trip through Western Canada that was bookended with stops against the Buffalo Sabres and Seattle Kraken was going to be a big 10 days.
After beginning with two losses, one in regulation to the Sabres and one in overtime to the Calgary Flames, the Black and Gold picked up a pair of wins over the Edmonton Oilers and Vancouver Canucks in overtime on Saturday night. They had two days off before closing the trip on Tuesday night in Seattle against the Kraken.
They had a chance to flip the script and go 3-1-1 on the trip and secure some valuable points in a tight Eastern Conference playoff race. Instead of ending the trip with a victory, they reverted to their early-season struggles in a 7-4 loss. After the game, David Pastrnak was brutally honest about the missed opportunity the Bruins had.
David Pastrnak doesn't beat around the bush after loss to Kraken
After another loss where the Bruins surrendered seven goals, Pastrnak was brutally honest about his team's performance.
"There’s no excuse to be tired. We had plenty of days and rest. We should’ve been the fresher team, at times we were, but we made a lot of mistakes,” Pastrnak said. “Waste of an opportunity to close out the trip.”
This was indeed a wasted opportunity to close out the trip, and there are no excuses. Seattle came into the game on a back-to-back after beating the Flames, 5-1, the night before. Meanwhile, Boston was in Seattle for a couple of days and held a practice on Monday. The odds were in their favor.
However, it turned into a missed opportunity, as Pastrnak said. Instead of taking advantage of two full days off, the Black and Gold took too many penalties, made a handful of mistakes, and allowed six goals over the final 40 minutes. Instead of securing two points and returning home with momentum, they suffered through a flight across the country, thinking what could have been. The 2025-26 Boston Bruins in a nutshell.