Breaking Down A Bruins Collapse: Does This Team Have The Desire To Make Postseason?
By Michael Hurley, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- It's happening again, isn't it?
Hockey fans in Boston know exactly what "it" is, as the Bruins on Thursday night capped off their fourth consecutive regulation loss in thoroughly uninspired fashion. Prior to Thursday's game at home against Tampa Bay, the atmosphere around the struggling Bruins remained relatively calm. Now? It's time to panic.
Consider that in 2015, a year after a second-round playoff loss to the Canadiens, the Bruins were sitting pretty with 82 points in the standings after going 7-0-1 to start the month of March. They then proceeded to go 5-5-4 in their final 14 games, including three straight losses to end the year, finishing outside the playoff picture. Out of a possible 28 points, the Bruins earned just 14.
And then last year, it was deja vu. A 7-1-2 record to start the month of March, sitting comfortably in the playoff picture. But then, five straight regulation losses, and a close to the season on a 3-9-0 stretch. Out of a possible 24 points, the Bruins earned six. They flopped in their final game of the year, when all they needed was a home win over Ottawa to make the playoffs.
All of which brings us to the current day. From early February through early March, the Bruins were a team on fire, going 12-3-0 and seemingly doing enough to guarantee that a third straight season without a postseason berth would not come. Since then, they've lost four straight, getting outscored 20-11. They have eight games remaining, four against playoff teams, two against teams directly chasing them in the standings, one game against the best team in the NHL (Washington), one game against the second-best team in the NHL (Chicago.)
It's happening again, right?
Obviously, results are results. But it's the way the Bruins looked on Thursday night that is rightfully going to make fans wonder if the team has the burning desire to finish the season on a prideful note and continue playing through April.
How'd it happen? Let's take a closer look.
Tampa Bay's First Goal
After taking a 1-0 lead early in the second period following a fortuitious bounce that set up David Pastrnak with an empty net on the power play, the Bruins all fell victim to too much puck watching.
Tuukka Rask made the initial stop on Jake Dotchin's shot, but Patrice Bergeron, Zdeno Chara and Brandon Carlo all failed to account for the presence of Ondrej Palat, who was planted at the top of the crease.
Compounding matters, Brad Marchand opted to watch the puck and swoop through the slot instead of picking up Brayden Point, who was given far too much space to simply step up and bury a rebound.
This was, all in all, a sloppy play. It was lazy. It was really not indicative of a team that deserved to keep its 1-0 lead. And, worst of all, it involved arguably the Bruins' four best players, all captured in that one snapshot.
Tampa Bay's Second Goal
Fast-forward a few minutes, and another fortuitous bounce sets up Chara with a large swatch of open ice. The big man buries a shorty under the bar. The Garden is alive. The Bruins are back!
Twenty-two seconds later, tie game.
It's probably a case where the Lightning deserve more credit than the Bruins deserve blame on this goal, because the Lightning displayed some solid power-play execution. Still, Jonathan Drouin perfectly capitalized on a slight lapse by Dominic Moore, who was in position to clog a cross-ice passing lane ...
... but then floated out too deep. As soon as Moore took his eyes off the puck, Drouin fired his pass to the right dot. Bang.
It's a mistake, yes, but only by the slightest degree. Nevertheless, the split-second float on the PK after scoring shorthanded proved costly.
Tampa Bay's Third Goal
Later in the second, Riley Nash scored a go-ahead goal for Boston by banking the puck off a downed Victor Hedman, and the Bruins actually held the lead for a full 90 seconds.
It was then that the Bruins allowed a 4-on-2 rush up ice, which is never ideal.
Anton Stralman didn't hesitate, and Tuukka Rask might have underestimated the D-man's ability to snipe. Stralman picked the corner. Once again, tie game.
While the finish on that goal gets the most focus, the breakdown began 200 feet down the other end of the ice. After Matt Beleskey put a harmless wrister into Peter Budaj's chestplate, Ryan Spooner lost a race to a rolling rebound in the left faceoff circle.
The Lightning quickly sent the puck up ice, and they had numbers.
That's not sound hockey. And it took all of five seconds for it to come back to bite them.
Tampa Bay's Fourth Goal
In the third period, the Lightning decided to score without first waiting for a Boston goal. This one came after Alex Killorn applied some simple back pressure on Kevan Miller. The Bruins' D-man tried to gently feed Nash at the Boston blue line in order to escape the zone ...
... but Miller applied too much muscle. The puck went straight to the tape of Dotchin, who quickly sent the puck forward to Vladislav Namestnikov. He one-touched the puck to Killorn, who was curling at the blue line. The Bruins had numbers, but they were stuck flat-footed as Killorn flicked a 50-foot backhand feed across the ice to Drouin.
Drouin had some room to do whatever he pleased.
He decided to tee up a bomb from the top of the circle. It beat Rask low to the glove side. Rask will tell you that he should have saved it (as an elite professional goalie, he should have), but even if he had (without gloving it dead), Killorn was in great position to easily bury a rebound.
It was a complete and thorough breakdown. The entire sequence took just six seconds. But it was six uninspired, flat seconds from the Bruins. And it resulted in the game-winning goal being scored.
That's where the Boston Bruins are at right now. They should be the team on the opposite end of that equation. But they're not. Again.
Tampa Bay's Fifth Goal
While the first four goals all involved varying levels of sloppiness, the worst part of the Bruins' game on Thursday was their effort -- or seeming lack thereof -- in the final period. After falling behind four minutes into the final period, the Bruins managed to get exactly one shot on net in the six minutes that followed.
David Pastrnak took a high-sticking penalty, and then ... this happened.
It was, admittedly, a bit of a fluke goal. Chara stood in front of Hedman's one-time slapper from the right circle, deflecting the shot wide of the net. Adam McQuaid was in good position to keep his man out of the play ... but the puck hit his shin pad ... and as it headed toward the net ... McQuaid extended his stick to try to keep it out ... both he and Rask whiffed.
This type of goal happens in a sport where men fire a rubber disc around a sheet of ice. But the problem on Thursday was that the multitude of mistakes the Bruins had already made turned out to make this particular goal a back-breaker. Leaving us with this.
After that goal, trailing by two, desperation never kicked in for the Bruins. They could not penetrate the Lightning defense. They tallied just five shots on net after falling behind 5-3. Those shots came from 23, 45, 29, 41, and 20 feet away from the net.
That's not going to get it done. And it doesn't say much for the fight in this Bruins team.
So ... What?
OK, so it was a dreadful game, one that has opened the door to much hemming and hawing regarding a very real possibility of another collapse. Are they going to do anything about it?
Well, they're at least saying the right things.
"We've just got to get harder and understand the stakes," interim coach Bruce Cassidy said. "Lately, [complacency has been] creeping in, and we've got to nip it in the bud now."
(Side note: The "magic" of Cassidy appears to have worn off. He's led the Bruins to a 12-7 record, yes, but against teams in the playoff picture, the Bruins are 4-6 under Cassidy. It's almost as if ... coaching was not the major problem on this team.)
"Not being focused, not being sharp, and obviously that's, at this time of the year, unacceptable," captain Zdeno Chara said. "For sure, we
need to address those things and hold each other accountable."
"When [giving up a lead] happens three times in one game, it's kind of inexcusable," Rask said. "It's something that we should be better at and today it was a tough night for all of us."
"I'll be the first guy to point fingers at my chest and say I need to be better," said David Backes. "Tonight was certainly not our best when it's that time of year when you need your best every night to win."
Backes added: "We need to look in the mirror."
"We all have to look at ourselves in the mirror and we can't point fingers," David Krejci echoed. "Everyone has to step up and if every guy is going to do their job, including myself, then the rest will follow, you know, but we haven't done that today at all."
OK, wonderful. They're saying the right things. But they said the right things last year, and they said the right things in 2015. Saying the right things doesn't do a whole lot if they don't execute on the ice.
And this year, that begins in earnest on Saturday night, when the Bruins take a trip to visit the New York Islanders. If we put aside the race for the third and final playoff spot in the Atlantic Division for the time being (Toronto owns a three-point lead over Boston, and with a game in hand), then it's really going to be a Bruins-Islanders race for the final wild-card spot.
The Islanders trail the Bruins by just two points, and they've played two fewer games than Boston. They play in Pittsburgh on Friday night, which is no easy task. But if the Islanders can get out of Pittsburgh with two points, they'll hit the ice in Brooklyn with a chance to pass the Bruins in the standings while still having one extra game left on their schedule.
For the Bruins, Saturday night should be treated as a de facto playoff game. That's especially the case when one considers that the Islanders' schedule is a bit easier than Boston's. New York will face five non-playoff teams in its final eight contests. The Bruins will face just three non-playoff teams in their final seven.
Realistically, the Bruins can still control how their season ends. If they beat the Islanders and turn it into a three-game winning streak with victories at home over Nashville and Dallas, then they may very well find themselves back in the mix in the Atlantic playoff group.
But after the performance that was put forth on Thursday night, any such discussion feels like fantasy. For the Bruins to get back into the playoff picture -- and, for that matter, for making the playoffs to even be meaningful in any way -- they're going to need to prove that they have the burning desire that is necessary in this league. Coming away from a home-ice flop vs. Tampa, that absence remains the greatest question.
You can email Michael Hurley or find him on Twitter @michaelFhurley.