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I don’t know about you, but I’m far beyond the point of expecting the Bruins to compete for the Atlantic Division. That’s because I’ve watched that Lightning team, sure, but also seen the Bruins lose more bodies by the day in what’s been nothing short of a ridiculous injury situation.
So, how about just surviving?
Think about this: The Bruins have had their one-two center punch of Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci together for less than two full periods of hockey this season. Add David Backes to the mix as the Bruins’ Big Three -- the B’s always believed having these three players on different lines made them a ridiculously deep and difficult team to prepare for -- and that figure remains the same. Two damn periods. It should be noted that the Bruins scored five goals in that 40-minute sample, too.
Krejci has started skating and could be set to return at some point this trip, but Backes is expected to miss about another month and a half due to surgery, and that’s if everything goes according to plan.
In addition to those losses, this year has soldiered on without the likes of Ryan Spooner (groin), Adam McQuaid (broken leg), Noel Acciari (broken finger), Tuukka Rask (concussion), Anton Khudobin (lower-body), Marchand (upper-body), and more at different points. Bergeron and defenseman Torey Krug rejoined the lineup at less than 100 percent and had to battle through some issues, too.
Top-line winger Marchand and first-year pro Anders Bjork are the latest injured Black and Gold skaters, too, and have already been ruled out for the next two games at the very least. Forwards Kenny Agostino and Peter Cehlarik have been recalled from the P-Bruins in their place.
Now, to the Bruins’ credit, they’ve done an OK job of hanging around and staying close enough, with 16 points through the first 16 games of the season, and with four loser points nabbed via overtime losses. But you’re finally beginning to see these on-ice personnel losses take their toll in some fashion, evident by a frustrating weekend home-and-home sweep at the hands of the Maple Leafs.
The Bruins were by all means given a gift when Auston Matthews, a player that entered the weekend leading the Leafs in both goals and points, was ruled out for both games due to an upper-body injury. They couldn’t make good on it in the first game, with late goals providing their demise en route to an overtime loss in Toronto. They were then given a secondary gift when Curtis McElhinney was in net for the second game of the back-to-back instead of Frederik “Never Gonna Ever Lose to the Bruins” Andersen. They failed to make good on that, too, as McElhinney stopped 38-of-39 shots faced in a 4-1 victory on Boston ice. That second loss featured a straight-up inexcusable third period stretch that saw the Bruins attempt just one shot on McElhinney during 1:07 of a 5-on-3 advantage.
“That group that starts most power plays are a big part of this team and we want to be difference makers, you know, all of us that are on the ice, so when we’re not breaking through we’re not scoring that big goal for the team, we take a lot of the blame and put it on our shoulders,” Krug admitted.
And now comes a California trip where the Bruins will play three games in four nights, and against the Ducks, Kings, and Sharks, three of the NHL’s most consistent and difficult matchups for them. When that ends, the Bruins will have a breather in New Jersey the night before Thanksgiving, and then start a three-game homestand against the Penguins, Oilers, and Lightning. Good lord.
This sounds like the last thing that a team that’s dropped six of their last eight games wants to see.
“I’m not nervous,” Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask said of the team’s recent slide. “I think you gotta look at the positives. We haven’t played bad hockey. You know, there’s been bad 5-10 minutes, but it hasn’t been work ethic or nothing like that. You know, we’ve been making plays and battling hard out there. So I don’t think it’s going to be an issue. You know, we’ve been here before and we just have to dig deeper and win some road game, it’s definitely not going to be an easy road trip.”
Thanksgiving has typically been considered the ‘playoff cutoff date’ and if this schedule has told me anything, it’s that the Bruins are not projected to be a playoff team when you’re cutting turkey next week. So that’s when you’ll move the goalposts, naturally, and hope for the best.
But I’m not sure you really have any other option, either.
“It’s pretty early to start looking at the standings and things like that but these are big points,” Krug said last Saturday. “Game 82 is worth two points, game one is worth two points, so it doesn’t matter. We’ve got to do a better job at coming up with points and we’ll get back to work.”
Ty Anderson is the Boston Bruins beat writer for WEEI.com, and has been covering the National Hockey League for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010. He can be heard on the Saturday Skate program on 93.7 WEEI (Boston), and has been part of the Boston Chapter of the PHWA since 2013. Contact him on Twitter or send him an email at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com.
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