The Bruins kicked off their three-game road trip through western Canada in Vancouver Wednesday night.
Their first of three games in four nights.
With the Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames rounding out the trip, getting off on the right foot in Vancouver was the key to success out west.
This season has been a struggle for the Canucks and Wednesday was the team’s second contest under new head coach Bruce Boudreau. The Canucks fired both head coach Travis Green and general manager Jim Benning earlier this week.
It was another disappointing effort by the Bruins who dropped the contest in Vancouver, 2-1 in the shootout.
“We played them recently. Obviously, they have a new coach. They’re going to have a certain amount of energy here tonight, I’m sure. That happens all the time when someone comes in new,… said Joe Sacco who is still running the Bruins bench with Bruce Cassidy still in COVID protocol.
“We always worry mostly about ourselves, but we’re constantly looking at the other team and seeing what they’re doing.…
The Bruins wasted one of Jeremy Swayman’s best performances of the season, stopping 31 of 32 shots through 65 minutes of play. Swayman really elevated his game in the third period when the Canucks brought their toughest push, and then in overtime, he was forced to make several big stops to keep the Bruins hopes alive.
J.T. Miller and Bo Horvat beat Swayman in the shootout to give the Canucks the extra point. The Bruins have yet to win in overtime and are now 1-1 in the shootout.
Five-on-five scoring continues to be an issue for the Bruins, and now, more magnified than in previous years because of how many other deficiencies the Bruins have in other areas of their game.
In the 1061:03 of five-on-five ice time the Bruins have skated this season, they’ve scored 36 times, 29th worst in all of the National Hockey League. Only the Arizona Coyotes, Chicago Blackhawks and New York Islanders have scored less.
When you break it down to goals for per 60 minutes of play at five-on-five, the Bruins numbers slightly improve, with 2.04 goals per game, ranked 26th.
“As far as our group not scoring, certainly it’s an issue that we focus on. We just want to make sure that they stick with it and don’t get frustrated,… Sacco said. “Usually, good players will find a way to score. If they keep putting pucks on the net, their scoring will come.…
With the Bruins struggling to score goals five-on-five, the Bruins depth is being tested. The lack of scoring depth is becoming more of an issue with each passing game.
Although they failed to find the back of the net five-on-five, the Bergeron line was excellent on Wednesday. In the 11:58 the trio saw five-on-five, the Bruins held the edge in:
Shot attempts: 21-6 Shots on goal: 11-1 Scoring chances: 9-3 High danger scoring chances: 4-0
Without the Bergeron line on the ice at five-on-five, things were not as favorable as the Canucks held the edge in shot attempts 34-18 and shots for 12-10. The Bruins held the edge in scoring chances for 11-6 and high danger scoring chances for 3-0.
In an attempt to stir up some offensive production five-on-five as the game progressed, Sacco juggled up his lines a bit, bumping Taylor Hall down to the third line.
It was a difficult night for Hall, Charlie Coyle and Craig Smith who were on the wrong end of shot attempts, (15-3) and shots for (5-0) at five-on-five.
“It wasn't necessarily just him; I mean, it was the line in general. We thought that, as a group, that maybe we could just change it up a little bit and put in [Erik] Haula because that line, it did have some success the last couple games,… Sacco said of Hall’s demotion.
“So, we'll figure out where we want to go with it tomorrow, as far as our lines. But we just thought we'd give it a chance and give it a shot in the arm and try to jolt our offense a little bit."
The Bruins have an opportunity to quickly put their disappointing loss behind them with Thursday’s contest in Edmonton.