Kalman: Bruins Way Too Talented To Be This Bad
BOSTON (CBS) - The Bruins decided to do things in reverse in Florida on Thursday and it cost them control of their own destiny.
Lately, while playing listless hockey at the most important time of the season, the Bruins accumulated enough points to hang onto eighth place in the Eastern Conference by flipping the switch in the third period against teams like Detroit and the Florida Panthers.
But against the Panthers on Thursday, the Bruins played their best period in the first. After they failed to beat old pal Roberto Luongo with any of their 12 shots, the Bruins played the rest of the game (except for about 2 minutes of the third period) as though they were waiting for the Panthers to give them the two points.
Meanwhile, Ottawa won in New York and Detroit earned a point in Montreal.
The Bruins now only make the playoffs if they beat Tampa Bay in regulation, overtime or a shootout on Saturday and either Ottawa loses in regulation or the Pittsburgh Penguins lose twice in regulation.
With the Penguins playing Friday night and the Senators playing Saturday afternoon, by the time the Bruins take the ice in Tampa on Saturday they could already be eliminated.
The Bruins entered the game Thursday with control of their own destiny if they won their last two games, with one win coming in regulation.
Although an estimated time of death for the Bruins' season will be determined in the next 48 hours, a time of expiration for the players' faith in the system was 15:14 of the third period Thursday. That's when the Bruins, behind by one goal, had a chance to rush the puck up ice after Torey Krug forced Jimmy Hayes into a giveaway just inside the Boston blue line. But Krug, who had played a solid all-around game up to that point, decided to blow the zone before the Bruins had possession. Forward Loui Eriksson ran into Panthers forward Jussi Jokinen at the blue line, Hayes pounced on the puck and provided the margin of victory by beating Tuukka Rask with a wrist shot.
Normally, an intelligent player like Krug would trust the system, make sure the team is ready to head up ice as a unit and not leave uncovered players behind him without possession. Down a goal with five minutes to go, there was no reason to panic. But the collapse of the Bruins' devotion to the system, which had been on life support most of the game, went off the grid right there.
After the first period, the Panthers had open players, were able to easily force giveaways and gained the Boston zone with ease. You could say the deterioration started Wednesday in Washington, when Milan Lucic and David Krejci had a breakdown on the Capitals' goal and then couldn't decide who was to blame.
Now let's interrupt this coverage of the Bruins' impersonation of road kill – with the Senators (39 of 48 points in their past 24 games) playing the role of the pickup truck – for some positivity.
All right. Bruins forward Brad Marchand capped that flurry of Bruins excitement in the third period by scoring his first goal in 16 games. You might not think that's much, but considering Marchand didn't score in 12 playoff games last season and didn't score in his last eight games (six in the Stanley Cup finals) in 2013, at least he's going to go into the off-season on a more positive note this time around.
We now return you to an autopsy of the Bruins' flattened on the pavement by the Senators' steamroller.
If there was anything Bruins teams of the past seven seasons could hang their hats on, it was belief that playing the right way at all times would give them their best chance of winning. No matter if it was the scrappy 2007-08 team or the loaded 2013-14 squad, the Bruins stuck to their structure, trusted one another and won a lot of games. Neither of those previously mentioned teams reached its ultimate goal, but at least both went down swinging in a Game 7.
Over the years the Bruins rarely veered away from their plans. They didn't change when they were desperate down 2-0 to Montreal in the first-round series in 2011 or down three goals in Game 7 of the first round against Toronto in 2013. If they were going to lose, they were going to lose playing the right way.
Little by little, that approach has been chipped away.
Some of it was ripped out with the loss of players like Jarome Iginla and Johnny Boychuk, some of it was killed by individuals not playing up to expectations and most of it was sapped by management, led by general manager Peter Chiarelli, sending mixed signals to the team all season long.
Rarely was there real competition for jobs in the lineup. Too often subpar players were allowed to keep their jobs for too long. Just for an example, it took 58 games until Dan Paille, who had one goal at that point, to get scratched. Paille was far from the Bruins' biggest problem, but he wasn't really earning the same confidence from his teammates that he was getting from the front office and coaching staff.
Paille and Gregory Campbell and Matt Bartkowski aside, those players' underachieving seasons would've been moot had the Bruins received anything close to a legitimate contribution from the likes of Reilly Smith, Carl Soderberg – players with real talent that didn't come through regardless of the roles they were cast.
The Bruins are way too talented as a whole to be in the position they're in right now. And that's the most frustrating part.
Through all the injuries and roster maneuvers Chiarelli executed (sometimes at the oddest times), if this group had harnessed its talent with just a dash of a champion's desire, the Bruins would be playing a meaningless tune-up for the playoffs Saturday in Tampa.
Now there's a chance they'll be playing a meaningless farewell game against the Lightning.
Matt Kalman covers the Bruins for CBSBoston.com and also contributes to NHL.com and several other media outlets. Follow him on Twitter @TheBruinsBlog.