There Is No Other Way to Put It: Your Boston Bruins Are Mired in a Bit of a Funk Right Now

No matter how good your team is in the NHL, at some point in the slog of an 82-game regular season, you are going to run into some speed bumps along the way. The Bruins (24-8-11) are clearly not themselves at the moment as they dropped a rather lifeless 4-1 decision to the Oilers (22-17-5) this afternoon at TD Garden that didn't even feel that close. Make no mistake, Boston had 36 shots on goal not to mention 63 shot attempts overall and yet they could only beat journeyman goaltender Mike Smith (35 saves, 8-9-2 this season and he improved to 5-13 all-time vs. the Bruins in his forgettable career) just one single time. Somehow, it was only their second loss in regulation at home this season and you have to say that it had to be one of their sloppiest efforts-namely countless missed passes and shots right at Smith-of 2019-20.

With a 1 p.m. EST start time, you figured that would have to favor the Bruins who accordingly struck first at 3:10 of the first period. David Pastrnak's shot was perfectly redirected by Edmonton defenseman Kris Russell for Pasta's NHL-leading 31st goal of the season. Torey Krug (1 goal, 7 assists in his last 7 games) and Brad Marchand (2 goals, 7 assists in his last 6 games) had the helpers as David extended his point streak to 10 games (5 goals, 10 assists). He is the only player in the league so far in this campaign to have multiple double-digit point streaks. It was also the 10th straight game with a power play goal for Boston (12 for 39 in that span), their longest stretch since March 7-27, 1996.

Jaroslav Halak (22 saves, 9-4-5) got the start for the Bruins and at least initially he seemed sharp as he made a diving save on a one-timer from Oilers superstar Connor McDavid (fed by his fellow stud Leon Draisaitl) late in the first period. Boston was up 1-0 after the first but they trailed 2-1 after the second as they gave up a pair of absolutely atrocious goals. First, Jake DeBrusk completely whiffed on a clearing pass deep in his own end leading to a breakaway and goal by something called Gaetan Haas (his 4th of the season) at 7:41. If that wasn't gross enough, Halak topped it by allowing a nothing shot on goal by Darnell Nurse squeeze past him (hugging the post, quite ineffectively as it turned out) with only 6.3 seconds left in the frame.

This was a strength on strength battle in terms of special teams as Boston came in with the No. 3 ranked power play and No. 2 penalty kill in the league while Edmonton's power play is the best and their penalty kill is No. 4. That's part of what made this such a bitter loss since Boston's penalty kill unit extended their successful streak to 23 for 23 dating back eight games (Dec. 17 vs. LA). Smith continued to make big saves and McDavid put it away for all intents and purposes early in the third. Goon Zack Kassian-who gets the honor of being on McDavid's line-spun around and hit him wide open from the slot where the best player in the world rarely fails to convert. McDavid's 23rd goal of the season came at 1:48 and it was also assisted by Ethan Bear.

The Bruins dominated in the third, outshooting the Oilers 21-7 but as Claude Julien's underachieving teams always taught us: shots on goal can be a very misleading statistic. Par Lindholm was wide open in the slot but he failed to shoot the puck past Smith, mostly because he stinks (witness his 0-for-6 goose egg on face-offs). Edmonton missed an early empty-netter but Draisaitl put a bow on it with an empty-net goal with nine seconds left in regulation. Every garbage time point means something when you're in the heart of a scoring race. His 24th goal of the season was unassisted and it was soon followed by rare (but totally deserved) boos by the Garden faithful that stuck around to the end. If there hadn't been so many kids here it probably would have been even louder in terms of the booing but I'm sure that the B's got the message.

Matt Grzelcyk was a late scratch for the Bruins with an illness but other than that, it was basically a full lineup (Connor Clifton remains out with an injury) for the home team. Since New Year's Eve, they are 0-1-2 against three blah teams (Devils, Blue Jackets and Oilers) and they have scored four total goals in that time frame. Boston won't practice tomorrow so they'll be back at Warrior Ice Arena on Monday morning before traveling to Nashville that day. They play the Predators (18-15-6) on Tuesday (8, NESN) with a chance to avenge Nashville's 4-3 overtime win here on Dec. 21.

The Predators are a bit of a mess themselves (4-5-1 in their last 10 games) after blowing a 2-0 lead vs. Dallas (24-14-4) in the Winter Classic and their outstanding defenseman Ryan Ellis is on IR with a concussion suffered on a dirty hit by Corey Perry (suspended 5 games for it) in that loss. Regardless, Bridgestone Arena is a tough place to play (Preds are 10-7-4 there this season) and Nashville is desperate for a spark to turn things around before they slip too far down in the Western Conference standings. Boston returns home on Thursday (7, NESN) to face old friend Blake Wheeler, UMass-Lowell's Connor Hellebuyck-one of the top goalies in the NHL-and Winnipeg (22-16-4)-another fringe playoff team on the outside looking in at this very second after losing 3-2 in overtime this afternoon in Minnesota (20-17-5).

Tweet

Connor McDavid is Incredible but the Oilers Still Stink as Evidenced in a 4-1 Bruins Victory

Two of the underrated trademarks of the Bruce Cassidy era (already in its third fun-filled season!) with the Bruins (3-1-0) is that they almost always beat the teams that are below them and they usually play well at TD Garden. Those are two positive changes from the end of Claude Julien's tenure here as his team routinely dropped points to garbage teams and likewise, they gave away way too many points on home ice-why they missed the playoffs his last two years. In a weird scheduling quirk, the Oilers (0-2-0) had only played a single game-in Sweden last Saturday-before coming to Boston this evening. You would think that they would be fired up after a crappy opener (5-2 loss to the Devils) but nope, they mostly rolled over in an easy 4-1 win for the B's.

Connor McDavid is undoubtedly the best player in the NHL these days but as last season showed, even he needs some help from his much less talented teammates. Poor goaltending and a crappy defense were Edmonton's biggest issues in 2017-18 and I don't know how much old friend and GM Peter Chiarelli addressed that since it's basically the same flawed group that's returned. It didn't take long for McDavid's singular brilliance to shine through as he scored his first goal of the season on a breakaway at 3:43. Ty Rattie and Darnell Nurse were credited with assists on the play but honestly it was all McDavid since he came from one end of the ice to the other before beating Jaroslav Halak (2-0-0; 25 saves).

That was the only highlight of the entire night for the Oilers though as Boston scored three straight goals in the first period as they cruised to another two points in their third straight win in regulation. Halak has only allowed one goal in his combined two starts so you couldn't ask for much more from the backup goaltender. The Bruins power play had a nice performance as well with a pair of goals on four opportunities. The top line continued to carry the B's which figures to be a bigger issue when they ramp up the competition. If you didn't get enough Bruins-Oilers tonight, the NHL will serve up another helping of it a week from now which is actually Edmonton's home opener as well. Neat.

David Pastrnak has become one of the top young players in the league and best goal-scorers so it was perhaps poetic that he was the one to answer McDavid's goal with an insane goal of his own. He dangled around Northeastern alum Matt Benning and backhanded the puck past Oilers goaltender Cam Talbot (28 saves) at 9:20 of the first period. Matt Grzelcyk had the lone assist on Pasta's fourth goal of the season, their first power play strike. Edmonton made the mistake of putting Boston right back on the power play and the Black and Gold made them pay for it. Brad Marchand's intended pass ended up being kicked in by Drake Caggiula at 14:37. Marchand's first goal of the season was assisted by Grzelcyk and Patrice Bergeron. Cassidy had an Alex Cora moment of good luck as Joakim Nordstrom (in the lineup in place of a healthy Ryan Donato) made his coach's move look smart when he redirected a pass from David Krejci just 36 seconds later for his first goal and point as a Bruin.

Other than a couple scraps, that was about all that happened in this tilt. Kevan Miller fought Jujhar Khaira early in the second period followed by David Backes slashing Caggiula to try and get him to drop the gloves. Benning's rough night continued as Sean Kuraly of all people managed to put him through a pane of glass behind Edmonton's goal (luckily it didn't shatter onto the crowd) with a big hit. Bergeron clinched it with a late empty-netter, his team-leading fifth goal of the season. The top line all has points in the past three games and that figures to continue to Saturday afternoon (3, NESN) as another doormat comes to the Garden: Detroit (0-2-2) is still looking for their first win of this campaign and they'll face Tuukka Rask (1-1-0) before we all rush home to watch Game 1 of the ALCS between the Red Sox and Astros (the NHL was smart enough to change the start time after it was originally 7 pm). Expect many similar results to this throughout October as Boston only plays two playoff teams from last year in their 1st 12 games.

Tweet

I Never Thought I'd Say This But Khudobin Gives the B's a Much Better Chance to Win Than Rask

Tuukka Rask (3-8-2) made his first start in 11 days (November 15 at Anaheim was his last outing) but despite 32 mostly run-of-the-mill saves, he couldn't add to his meager win total as Edmonton (9-13-2) wrapped up a bumpy five-game road trip with a 4-2 victory tonight at TD Garden. Boston (10-8-4) saw its modest four-game winning streak come to an end as Rask has yet to record a win since November 6 at Minnesota (5-3). The Celtics (18-3) are the best team in the Eastern Conference and the Patriots (9-2) might be the top team in the NFL, so the Bruins' cloudy goaltending situation won't nearly get the attention as those more worthy clubs but I have to admit that it is getting pretty damn interesting.

Anton Khudobin (7-0-2) has won his last four straight starts and he hasn't lost in regulation this entire season (7-0-2). Still, Rask is the undisputed No. 1 (at least for the time being) so he had to get back in there at some point and the Oilers seemed like a good spot for him since they had dropped four out of their last five contests. Boston got off to a good start as David Pastrnak scored a power play goal at 14:03 of the first period for a 1-0 lead. Torey Krug and Rask had the assists on Pasta's team-leading 12th goal of the season. He finished the shot right in the nick of time before he got flattened by a pair of Edmonton players and Cam Talbot (23 saves)-who's had a miserable campaign himself-couldn't react to it in time.

Patrick Maroon apparently lives to play in Boston as he followed up his hat trick here last year with another goal, this one tying things up at 9:50 of the second period. Zach Kassian found him with a cross-ice pass and he was able to beat Rask up high to the top shelf for his seventh goal of the season. Edmonton took a 2-1 lead less than five minutes later at 14:20 as Adam Larsson (how's that Taylor Hall trade looking this season? Haha woof!) had a shot from the point deflect in off Charlie McAvoy's skate. Larsson's third goal of the season was assisted by the newly-acquired Mike Cammalleri and some nobody named Connor McDavid. The B's continued to get outshot at an alarming rate (17-5 in the 2nd!) but somehow it was knotted at two after two frames as David Krejci roofed one by Talbot at 15:31. Riley Nash, his temporary linemate, and Krug provided the assists on Krejci's third goal of the season.

With everything to play for in the third, Boston finally stepped on the gas-outshooting Edmonton 14-9-but it didn't really matter as a defensive breakdown allowed Ryan Strome to be wide open in the slot for an easy goal at 2:07 that Rask couldn't be expected to save in most instances. Leon Draisaitl had the lone helper on Strome's fourth goal of the season. Talbot came in with a horrid 3.13 goals against average so he tried his best to give away the lead but the Bruins couldn't take advantage of a shaky goaltender on the other end. Draisaitl ended it with an empty-net goal at 19:09: his first attempt was blocked but he stuck with it for his seventh goal of the season, assist by McDavid and old friend Milan Lucic (who earlier was mistakenly credited with Larsson's goal).

So where do the Black and Gold go from here? Well they are off tomorrow and then get back to practice on Tuesday before Tampa Bay (16-5-2)-the top team in the Eastern Conference and one point behind St. Louis (17-6-1) who has played one more game-is here for rivalry night on Wednesday (7:30, NBC Sports Network). Boston head coach Bruce Cassidy has been around for too long to be baited into committing too early to his starting goaltender for that tilt but I honestly would be surprised if he goes back to Rask in that one. I still have a hard time explaining the reason behind it (maybe just that some things in life are unexplainable, son) but the fact remains that the Bruins are a unquestionably better team when Khudobin is in the net and not Rask. Tuukka wasn't bad today but a shutout or perhaps stealing a win for the B's-which is basically what he had to do-would have gone a long way at least in the near future for the struggling Finn.

Tweet

The Bruins Need To Drastically Shake Things Up and They Should Have Done It Already

It's been a long time since I was applying to colleges but from what I remember, they don't let dumb people into Harvard. My point being that Bruins GM Don Sweeney is a smart man so there is no conceivable way that he can sit by idly and watch Boston (20-17-4) piss away another entire season, right? How many times do fans have to see the same mistakes: slow starts, no offensive firepower, a stubborn head coach set in his (usually winning) ways, an awful power play and a team that you can never count on to perform at a high level at key moments? After sitting through another lackluster performance tonight at the Garden where the Oilers (20-13-7) beat the Bruins 4-3, all I can reasonably conclude is that something has to happen very soon before the Black and Gold repeat the same exact crappy script from the last two years (going to the last weekend of the regular season needing points to make the playoffs then not getting them).

Let's not waste any time, Claude Julien is a wonderful coach, in fact he's still one of the best in the NHL. However, as the longest-tenured guy behind the bench (almost 10 years), don't you have to wonder if many of his players have started to tune him out a bit? If you're not named Bill Belichick and winning at an insane clip year after year, eventually every coach reaches an expiration date. I'm not going to say that Julien deserves to get fired since I don't think you can expect much better results than he's getting with this flawed roster but perhaps it's simply time for a new voice. Changing coaches is always the easiest way to shuffle the deck for a team that's going nowhere fast but nearly all of the current roster needs to be under the microscope as well.

Sorry Danny Ainge, you can't rip off rival GMs on every trade so maybe the Bruins have to trade some of their supposed best players (David Krejci, Zdeno Chara, etc.) to prove that what's happening now and over the last few years isn't acceptable for a club that was one of the league's biggest powers just a few short years ago. How can a team be so good on the road (11-7-4) yet so mind-numbingly poor at home (9-10-0), again? If you've been paying attention, tonight's loss to Edmonton had so many of the usual elements of the Bruins' recent failures: a nobody (Patrick Maroon) had a career-night (his 1st career hat trick), they had a whopping 75 shot attempts (36 on goal, 19 blocked, 20 missed the net!) and the opposing goaltender-in this crease Cam Talbot (33 saves) did enough to gain the two points as the Oilers were up two goals in the third period and held on.

Connor McDavid's first career game in Boston was a memorable one as he had a pair of assists in helping the Oilers get their first regulation win over Boston since Oct. 17, 2000 and first regulation win here since Nov. 7, 1996. In fact, the Bruins had a 16-game point-streak (13-0-3) snapped by Milan Lucic's new team. No word on if Looch actually played in the game because I never saw him out there. McDavid threaded a perfect pass to Maroon for a one-timer only 1:08 into the contest. Leon Draisaitl had the other helper on Maroon's 12th goal of the season. Chara didn't like what he was seeing so he did what any good leader would do: he dropped the gloves with Maroon shortly after that initial tally. Is that still allowed in the NHL? Answer: barely.

Boston put together a short-lived lead as Colin Miller tied it at 7:16 of the first period when his shot bounced in the net off of former Northeastern defenseman Matt Benning. Austin Czarnik and Torey Krug assisted on Miller's third goal of the season. Patrice Bergeron continued to slowly percolate as he finished a pass from David Pastrnak for a 2-1 B's lead at 10:43 of the second period. Kevan Miller (his 1st point of the season) had the other assist on Bergeron's eighth goal of the season. Of course, the Bruins aren't allowed to taste success for very long these days at the Garden so Maroon tied it at two at 13:09. Maroon overpowered Adam McQuaid for a loose puck by Tuukka Rask (21 saves) and spun around to get the shot off. BU's Eric Gryba and McDavid had the assists.

Edmonton is having an unexpectedly good season thus far and they were helped out by a fortunate bounce of their own as Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had a puck ricochet off his body into Boston's net just 14 seconds into the final frame. After allowing such an early goal in the first period, how could the Bruins double down and give up a way faster one? My head hurts. Maroon completed his hat trick at 9:02 (his career-best 14th goal of the season) after fittingly forcing an ugly turnover by the B's in their own end. He wrapped around Rask and waited for a long time before sliding the puck in. Beautiful goal.

The Bruins had a 5-on-3 power play for 59 seconds and even they couldn't screw that up. With Gryba literally a second from jumping back on the ice from the penalty box, Krejci sent in a shot from the side of the net after Talbot had stuffed Bergeron at a better angle. Brad Marchand notched the other assist on Krejci's ninth goal of the season at 17:04. Boston pushed for a tying goal but as usual, it wasn't meant to be. How many times have we said, "why don't they play like that (as they do when they are coming back) more often?" Therein lies the main issue: who do you blame more for yet another up-and-down season? Make no mistake, the Jacobs' might not hold anyone accountable but someone has to notice that this group is fatally flawed.

Boston has practice tomorrow morning before flying out to Florida as the Bruins visit the Panthers (16-15-8) on Saturday night (7, NESN). They are in Carolina (17-14-7) for a bizarre 5 pm start time (on NESN) on Sunday. I wouldn't recommend viewing either game even though the B's will probably do well in them. Nope, Wild Card Weekend starts on Saturday afternoon and even though the Pats are off for a week, the NFL playoffs are much more interesting than this mess of a team. Look for center David Backes (who is recovering from a concussion) to return this weekend after he practiced yesterday but wasn't cleared to play for tonight.

Tweet