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One ill-timed
Adam McQuaid fall, two power-play shots against, and a penalty shot goal from
Steven Stamkos was all it took for the Boston Bruins to continue their perennial Jekyll & Hyde act with Sunday’s 4-1 defeat at the hands of the Tampa Bay Lightning at TD Garden.
“Well that’s part of the story I think – the self-inflicted mistakes that we made, the amount of breakaways and those kind of things. And you know, special teams tonight – the penalty kill wasn’t good enough for us, and then the power play, although they did generate some chances, you know we didn’t produce,” Boston coach
Claude Julien said of Boston’s struggles in yet another home defeat, this time to a team they’ve been competing with neck-and-neck in their division for nearly a month plus now. “And there’s no doubt their goaltender was solid for them tonight. But you know at the end of the day it was a big game and we needed to be better than we were.”
In a game that got away from the Black and Gold in the blink of an eye -- as it often has at home this year -- it seemed as if the mistakes just compounded one after another, even after the Bruins jumped ahead with a 1-0 behind defenseman
Kevan Miller’s fifth goal of the season.
On the penalty kill following
Zac Rinaldo’s illegal check to the head of Tampa Bay forward
Cedric Paquette, the Bolts capitalized with a power-play goal from
Alex Killorn and quite simply never looked back. It was the goal that clearly deflated the Bruins, and more followed.
And from the Stamkos goal on, the Bruins may have well been sleeping.
“No, because every time you lose, it’s no good,” B’s center
David Krejci said when asked if he was satisfied with the B’s effort in spite of the loss. “Even though we were maybe winning the last couple of games, we still don’t play the way we want to play. You want to go into playoffs feeling good about your team and I felt like we were heading in the right direction before this game – it was never perfect, but like I said, we were going in the right direction. But I felt like tonight was kind of a step back, so we have to work on some stuff, especially those little details.
“In this league, it’s a big thing – just little things, but goes a long way.”
This
did feel like a step back for the Black and Gold, too. You can only hang on to the positives of the Dallas game and even the Pittsburgh game for so long before you have to move on to the next challenge. And that’s where the Bruins have consistently run into problems this season.
“We had a lot of breakdowns. We hit a lot of posts and it would’ve been a different score,” McQuaid said of Boston’s issues in this one. “And I think we’ve been giving up a lot of shots. And maybe not, you know, the breakaways and stuff like that. But we’ve been giving up a lot of shots in previous games and we haven’t really gotten burned on it and tonight we did and it’s an area we need to clean up.”
The loss dropped the Bruins to 1-2-0 against the Bolts this season, with one more game left on deck.
Random thoughts and notes
- So, that was ugly. And your eyes turn to the Bruins’ nightmarish special teams play. Their penalty kill went just 1-for-3, and their power play went 0-for-6. That’s a recipe for disaster any night. Especially so when you’re talking about a head-to-head with a team that entered play with five wins in a row.
“Well that’s playoff hockey, your special teams have to be really good and I think the past couple games our penalty kill, we’ve been struggling a little bit or just letting in some goals – unnecessary goals – and today was a good example of that,” B’s netminder
Tuukka Rask said after the loss. “But, you know, we’ll bounce back because that’s always been our strength and we want to be good as a penalty killing unit and kill those penalties and give us a chance, but today was a tough night for us.”
- Bruins captain
Zdeno Chara was asked about the trade deadline after the game.
“I trust them,” Chara said when asked if he expects any trades. “That’s not a question for me.”
Pressed on the subject once more, the 38-year-old captain tried to elaborate.
“The players have to understand it’s something you can’t control as a player. If you worry then you shouldn’t be because no matter what you can’t control it,” Chara, on Boston’s books through 2018, continued. “If it happens then you have to move on, but if it doesn’t then you should always approach this time of the year like any other day. It’s just a part of the business.”
But Chara has a full no-movement clause, and can 100 percent control what happens, so long as the move involves his contract, but that’s not something No. 33 was willing to talk about.
“I’m not making comments on my contract,” Chara, clearly losing patience, said.
In other words, I don’t think it’s the time or the place to expect a trade involving Chara, of course.
(And I don’t think it should be, either, as the 6-foot-9 Chara is not the sole -- or even close to the main -- reason why the Bruins are struggling to develop any sort of consistency as a group this season.)
- In what could have been his final game at TD Garden as a Bruin,
Loui Eriksson seemed to be in a weird, borderline stressed mood following the loss. If you looked at Eriksson’s face, you could almost see the wear-and-tear this entire ordeal has taken on the 30-year-old. For Eriksson, a family man with two younger kids, the idea of not knowing where you’re finishing the season has to drive him nuts. Factor in Eriksson’s happiness in Boston and everything becomes even more complicated.
And still, B’s general manager
Don Sweeney seems entirely on the fence when it comes to the Eriksson situation and what exactly has to be done before Monday’s deadline.
“Loui’s a good player. He’s having a great season. He’s very important for our success up to date, and we treat it as such,” said Sweeney. “If another team, and I’ve had several discussions with other teams, felt that was equal on that side of it, the deal was a right fit, then that’s something we’d explore.
“But my preference has been all along to try and sign him, and go from there.”
At the same time, if that can’t happen, Sweeney is OK rolling with Eriksson for the stretch run, too.
“Loui [Eriksson] is a valuable player and other teams are probably seeing him accordingly as such. To me, as the question was asked earlier, he’s an impactful player in our hockey club,” Sweeney admitted when asked of keeping him. “I would have continuing negotiations with him. You know we value him; we’ve offered him a significant contract. There’s a gap there that exists at times with players and we’ll see where it goes. Doesn’t mean I’ll stop between now and then as to whether or not something will materialize…bottom line you have to do what’s best for the organization and move forward.”
The swift Swede controls his own destiny to a degree (the Bruins would need permission to send No. 21 to a team not on his no-trade list), Eriksson seemed… almost somber. Maybe it’s just the weight of everything hitting him -- realizing that his future is uncertain and that it could have been his last time in the locker room with all his teammates -- but there was just something off when it came to his exit from the arena. Is this reading a whole lot into nothing? Probably. But still, you can’t help but feel as if there’s not a soul in that locker room looking forward to 3:01 p.m. more than the pending free agent.
The Podcast To Be Named Later with Andy Merritt
Listen to the New England Hockey Journal’s Andy Merritt and yours truly talk about Sunday’s 4-1 loss, the trades that have happened, and the trades that might happen before Monday’s 3 p.m. deadline.
Up next
It’s deadline day for the Black and Gold -- and for the rest of the league for that matter -- and expect Sweeney and the B’s front office to throw plenty of darts at their board in search for something, anything that they think can make the club better. In addition to their attempted handling of the Eriksson situation, the Bruins have been on a hunt for a defenseman, and have been linked to Calgary’s
Kris Russell and Vancouver’s
Dan Hamhuis. (They are not alone in that quest.)
Ty Anderson has been covering the National Hockey League for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, has been a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter since 2013, and can be contacted on Twitter, or emailed at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com.
Boston Bruins Blogger •Bruins Feature Columnist • 
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