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The boos the Boston Bruins have skated off to following almost every home this season sound tired. Equally tired are the Bruins, on the wrong end of a 5-4 final at the hands of the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday night, dropping their home record to a pitiful 2-6-1 on the year, of their home-ice woes.
“I think we all know this isn’t good enough. We all know that we need to be better. I think we have to take the responsibility of having to be better,… a frustrated Claude Julien said following the loss. “There’s no excuse for tonight. We didn’t play well enough, can’t come out in the third and decide to play a little bit better. This playing once in a while in games is just not gonna cut it in this league.…
This is not news to the Black and Gold. The Bruins have long talked about their need to improve their home record and make the TD Garden a place opponents are uncomfortable in (and the cramped visitors’ locker room isn’t enough to do that). By now, the Bruins can and have talked about the necessary adjustments ‘til they’re blue in the face. But the time for mere talking is undoubtedly over.
It should have been over long ago, actually.
“It has to end, it should have ended by now,… Julien said when pressed about the timeframe for the Bruins to simply apply their talk of adjustments to their Garden game. “That’s the disappointing part. We can talk about a lot of things, but the most important thing is go out there and do it and show it. It’s not happening, so that’s the part that I feel that we need to deal with as a group and we’ve got to figure out a way because we know this isn’t acceptable and it shouldn’t be.…
San Jose opened up the game’s scoring behind Joe Pavelski’s 10th goal of the year, scored just 42 seconds into the first period. And though the Bruins countered with back-to-back goals from Tyler Randell (his third of the year) and a pretty power-play marker from Brad Marchand to take a 2-1 edge, the Sharks ended the first in 2-2 with Joonas Donskoi’s redirect of a Paul Martin blast that was simply impossible for Tuukka Rask to stop.
The Bruins regained the lead less than two minutes into the middle frame behind Loui Eriksson’s sixth goal of the season, but shortly after, for whatever reason, it all came undone for the Black and Gold. Like it has too many times to count in a campaign that’s just 17 games old.
At 5:56, Melker Karlsson scored to tie things up. Boston defender Adam McQuaid took an interference penalty 32 seconds later. Ten seconds before that penalty expired, the B’s were whistled for a too-many-men call. Patrick Marleau scored on that power-play to put the Sharks up by one. 11 seconds after that, Ryan Spooner put the Sharks back to work on another man advantage with a bad tripping penalty. Joe Thornton scored 14 seconds into that one. Randell put the cherry on a nightmarish six minutes of hockey with a nonsensical roughing penalty, too.
And in the blink of an eye, the Bruins saw their lead vanish and skated into a two-goal hole through 40.
“You look at most of those goals, how they got scored on, I think it’s just lack of focus for the most part,… Rask, who finished the night with 23 saves on 28 shots against, said. “There were some nice goals but lack of focus. I mean, just tightness and playing hard. We showed in the third period again when we don’t hesitate at all, we just keep pushing, pushing, we play in their end for the most part.
“It’s just frustrating that we can’t get a game together like that. Obviously it’s tough, you have to skate, you have to work hard to play that kind of way. But it seems like when we don’t play like that we’re not really doing anything and then we end up getting scored on and that just deflates us. We have to find a balance, I think, for whenever we’re not sustaining that pressure we can not be just standing still and getting scored on. We have to have a good balance I think.…
The Bruins made it a game by way of Patrice Bergeron’s power-play goal early in the third period, and even had a solid chance at tying things up with a late-game power play, but nothing came of it, and the Bruins’ effort was once again too little, too late in a game that looked like a schedule victory.
“We know that we’re not all playing our best every night and we have to,… Marchand said. “I think right now if we’re going to get out of this and we’re going to start putting a few wins together we have to have everyone going every night and we can’t have any passengers at all.
“If we have one [passenger] that’s enough to cost us a game and right now we have way too many.…
Random thoughts and notes
- It was a night of message-sending from B’s coach Claude Julien. Those who were sent messages included Randell, Spooner, and fourth-line winger Zac Rinaldo.
Of the three, only Spooner took any shifts in the third period. And even then, Spooner’s third period time-on-ice (a lofty three shift, 2:59 came primarily with his spot on Boston’s first power-play unit.
Julien was vocal about the lack of commitment from the full roster (clearly singling out the benched), but wasn’t exactly open when it came to telling reporters what that means from his point of view.
“That’s something that I’ll deal with internally. Certainly not going to elaborate that here,… Julien, who has shown that he’s not afraid of pushing buttons with this team when needed, said. “This is where part of my job has to be worked on in the dressing room and not certainly outside the dressing room.…
And Spooner, in spite of his primary assist on the Bergeron goal, was honest about his night.
“I wasn’t playing that well. I mean in the first period I thought I was ok, the second period I didn’t play well at all,… Spooner admitted when asked of his benching. “I don’t disagree with it at all.
“We have to look in the mirror and each and every one of us have to be better. I don’t think anyone can say they’ve played their best so far this year.. We need everyone to be good every night.…
- After a strong few games, the B’s penalty-kill took another nosedive on Tuesday night.
Killing just three of San Jose’s three power-play opportunities, Patrice Bergeron and the B’s continue to wonder why their shorthanded unit, which has been efficient under Julien, is completely failing them.
“Right now we’re trying to figure that out,… Bergeron said. “It’s been -- I thought it was getting better and tonight again - I think when we’re aggressive - I’ve said that a lot –- We’re opening up too much, we should have more guys, we should all be in sync and were not. We’re giving too many chances from the slot area or even on rebounds and stuff like that. We’re not boxing out our guys good enough.…
The Boston penalty-kill, 46-of-65 (70.8%), remains the worst in the league.
- Here’s a weird stat for you: Of the 35 goals the Bruins have surrendered at home this year, nine have been scored or assisted by former Bruins. 26 percent! This may mean nothing in the grand scheme of things (and it likely doesn’t -- does anything?), but old friends are having a ball in Boston this year.
And it’s driving everyone else nuts.
Up next
The Bruins return to the Garden on Thursday night for a matchup with the Minnesota Wild. The Wild arrive in Boston on the heels of a 4-3 loss in Pittsburgh on Tuesday night and still without Zach Parise, but still come to the Hub as a formidable opponent, with 10 wins and 23 points in 17 games this season. The B’s and Wild split their season series a year ago, with the road team winning each contest.
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.