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With just two wins in their last 10 contests, including a 2-1 shootout defeat at the hands of the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday night, the Boston Bruins are an undeniably struggling bunch. But the Bruins are not dead and buried just yet, although tonight’s tilt in Detroit between the Philadelphia Flyers and Red Wings comes with its share of anxious scoreboard-watching for the Black and Gold.
A Detroit regulation loss and the Bruins and Wings remain tied at 91 points each with a head-to-head between the two set for Thursday night at TD Garden. A Detroit overtime/shootout loss to the white-hot Flyers puts the Wings at 92 point versus Boston’s 91, and makes tomorrow night’s game an actual must-win if the Bruins are to have any actual shot at landing the third place finish in the Atlantic Division (their best, and maybe only, bet). Same can be said for a Detroit win of any sort tonight.
“One hundred percent,” Boston center
David Krejci said last night when asked if he’d look at tonight’s game between the Flyers and Wings at a chance to get some video scouting on Detroit.
So while the Bruins are set to scoreboard watch, there’s still an element that allows them to remain in control of their own destiny, although it begins and ends with the Bruins handling the Wings tomorrow.
But the Bruins, in both terms of their own play and their health, are not at 100%. The club is still without minute-eating defenseman
Dennis Seidenberg, and
Jimmy Hayes missed Wednesday’s practice, which prompted an emergency call back to the NHL for
Max Talbot, the gritty veteran presence the Bruins acquired in their unsuccessful bid to the playoffs last season. In addition to Talbot, fellow 2015 deadline pickup,
Brett Connolly, returned to the ice.
But Connolly nor Talbot will be the reason why the Bruins make or miss the postseason this year.
Above all else, the Bruins need to find ways to capitalize on their plethora of home-ice chances this year. Something that’s been a ridiculously impossible task -- still, for reasons unknown -- for this group.
“It’s a do-or-die every game,” B’s leading goal-scorer
Brad Marchand noted of the team’s morale after Tuesday’s loss. “We have two left here, and we still have to look at this next one and be extremely prepared for that. So we’ve got to let this one go and be ready for the next game.”
B’s coach
Claude Julien noted that their shootout loss was a matter of failing to finish and ‘nothing more’, but with two games left, and points needed, the Bruins
need to finish.
“Just play with more confidence,”
Loui Eriksson, who scored the only Bruins goal in the loss, his 29th of the season, said when asked how the team can improve their finish with the season on the line over the next two contests. “When you have that extra chance or time, you have to find a way to score those goals, and I think we can do a little bit better there when we get the chances.”
Figuring out this Bruins group has been an exercise in futility from Day 1 -- I mean, the Bruins scored just 10 goals over their previous seven games before they broke through with a combined 10 goals against the Blues and Blackhawks, only to score one on Carolina on Tuesday night -- so trying to actually have any idea how the final 120 minutes of their regular season will play out is pointless.
But what you do know, of course, is that the Bruins need points. They need wins, actually.
And if there’s a time for the offense to return, it’s now. And if it does not, well, they’re finished.
The Podcast to be Named Later with Andy Merritt and Ty Anderson
As is tradition, the New England Hockey Journal’s Andy Merritt and yours truly got together after the game to talk about the Bruins, the NHL playoff picture, and yes, Wrestlemania. We even had a nice security guard give us an update on a broken elevator while we recorded. Hooray, elevators.
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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