Beginning Tuesday, the Bruins play seven times in 12 days, with five of those coming on the road. The Bruins have not won consecutive games since taking a pair of wins from the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Feb. 10 and Feb. 12.
In their recent run of inconsistent play, they’ve slipped from the top of the MassMutual East division to third, five points behind the division leading New York Islanders. They’re just two points ahead of the Philadelphia Flyers who are currently outside of the playoff picture in the division.
To keep it simple: the Bruins need to be better.
The Bruins are coming off a frustrating 1-0 shutout loss to the New Jersey Devils Sunday afternoon. It wasn’t a bad game by the Bruins by any means, but one where even with 40 shots on goal, they couldn’t muster any offense against a Devils.
"We had enough looks around the net to generate a couple goals tonight," said Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy. "I think a lot of pucks hit [Devils goalie Scott Wedgewood]. I think he made some big saves, obviously, especially in the third period. I think we did a little better job attacking with our forward group against their D as the game went on.…
Even if Sunday was a case of the Bruins running into a goalie who was simply on his game, the Bruins can’t afford to leave points on the table against a team like the Devils, especially given how tight the race in the division is.
The Devils and Buffalo Sabres have yet to break 20 points and should continue to be not much of a factor in the playoff picture.
While the Rangers are a team that features a combination of young and old talent, they’re not quite there yet in their rebuild. While still a difficult team to play against, they too shouldn’t be a factor in the playoff picture.
That leaves four playoff spots between five teams.
“It is a shortened season and you don’t want to get into some sort of rut where your game’s kind of fallen and you’re losing games, and it’s hard to gain those points back when there’s only so many you can take in a shortened season,… said forward Charlie Coyle.
“So it’s up to us to talk about it, talk about things in our game that we can do better that will help us get a better result. And that’s what we do. We got to learn from these ones, and do what we can to come back and play the way we need to play.…
Of those upcoming seven games in 12 days, two come against the Rangers, two against the Sabres and two against the Penguins, a team the Bruins have had much success against over the last several season.
The Bruins will see potentially their toughest challenge of their upcoming run Tuesday in Long Island when they take on the Islanders, a team they’ve yet to beat in three tries.
It’s been well documented the struggles the Bruins have scoring goals five-on-five, we don’t have to dive into that, again. But now, the Bruins are even struggling to score goals on the power play—their bread and butter and the key to their success over the course of the last three seasons.
In their last six games the Bruins have failed to score on the power play, going 0-12 in that span. They haven’t scored on the man advantage since their win over the Philadelphia Flyers at Lake Tahoe on Feb. 21.
In their three losses against the Islanders this season, the Bruins have gone 0-7 on the power play.
"If we can try to find ways to move a little bit more, move the puck faster and quickly, I think that's when, as a penalty kill, when you get moving, one step is enough to get that puck through and find that little space that you need on the power play," said Bergeron. "If you make them move and get out of position by moving the puck and moving well all over the ice it helps."