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Let’s talk about what went right for the Boston Bruins in their second -- and thank goodness, final -- trip to the Bell Centre this year. (This is going to be a short paragraph.) In a hostile environment against a team that’s won eight of the last nine regular season meetings against the Bruins, the Black and Gold killed off an early penalty against one of their top penalty-killing forwards (Brad Marchand). And then they struck on their first power-play shot of the night with Dougie Hamilton beating Carey Price.
The start was everything the B’s wanted after a Wednesday night debacle in Toronto, a 6-1 loss.
But it would be a penalty shot goal from Dale Weise (of all people, right?) three minutes into the second that changed everything for the Bruins in yet another blowout defeat, falling to Montreal, 5-1.
With Boston back on their heels, and after a questionable decision to scrap for Matt Fraser, who found himself on the receiving end of several blows from the Canadiens’ Nathan Beaulieu, the Habs struck with two goals in a minute and 57 seconds. (This is quickly becoming an issue for the Bruins.) First came Lars Eller roofing one home for his fourth of the season without a man in his sight, and then an absolute rocket from Max Pacioretty froze Hamilton up and made it 3-1.
After 40 minutes, Niklas Svedberg and the Bruins were down by just two, but it felt like ten.
The Bruins, outshot 16-to-5 in the middle frame, were under siege.
Pacioretty’s second of the night five minutes into the third made it 4-1, and Jiri Sekac’s power-play goal 14:06 into the third made it 5-1, and that was more than enough for Price and company.
In a little more than 24 hours, the Bruins found themselves beat into the ground by their rivals by an aggregate of 11-to-2, with both of their goals for coming from their defensemen. Talk about a no show.
And it was more of the same for the Black and Gold here. They just didn’t look like a team that was up to the task of matching Montreal’s intensity. The defense once again hung their goaltender out to dry -- though Svedberg looked solid in a night where he finished with a mediocre 29-of-34 line -- and looked overmatched by speed. Even the Bruins’ most dependable pairing (Hamilton and Dennis Seidenberg) and their shutdown line of Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-Reilly Smith finished the night with minus-3 ratings next to their names. It was the first minus-3 night for Bergeron in over three years, no less.
You tell yourself that these kind of nights don’t happen often. But they’re suddenly happening at an alarming rate for a B’s squad that won’t catch any real breaks in their next five games except for a gimme at home against Carolina on Saturday (and even that makes you wonder at this point).
If there’s one thing that you can notice about this year’s Bruins squad through 18 games -- despite their 10-8-0 record on the year -- is that they’re so hit-or-miss it’s absolutely painful. It’s tough (I’d prefer to use ‘impossible’ here) to find a game where this team looked in sync and on the same page. There’s been too many nights where they’ve relied on one player or one line to carry the entire load, and that catches up with you against a more complete team like a Montreal (or even a present-day Toronto Maple Leafs).
And while the 'emergency' tag should have tempered my expectations, I'll admit, I can't help but question the decision to bring Alexander Khokhlachev up from the minors and have him spend the night in the press box as the club's healthy scratch. Are you getting that much from Chris Kelly on the first line that warrants you keeping a skill guy like Khokhlachev up there? Have you gotten anything from Matt Fraser since his quick two-goal outburst against the Senators back on Nov. 1? Has Simon Gagne been anything but a total bust on that fourth line?
This was a game where the Bruins could have used the offensive creativity of a player like the 21-year-old Russian. Or just something to shake it up even a little bit.
But hey, when you lose 6-1 and call out your entire forward corp the night before, I suppose things are going great and you wouldn't want to mess with that kind of chemistry, huh?
Yes, the Bruins are still without all-world defenseman Zdeno Chara. And no, David Krejci was not with the club for this road trip. But a change is most certainly coming, and sooner rather than later if the Bruins continue to take on water in a wide open Eastern Conference. Just what that change will entail, however, is still a complete mystery. (I still have no idea what it could be, but what I do know is that the B’s are not in a situation where they can afford to be as patient as they’d like given this team’s expectations and highly questionable offseason moves.)
A closing stat for you: With Thursday’s loss, the Bruins have lost two straight games by four goals or more. That hasn’t happened since March 2012, when Marty Turco was tending nets for the club. Ouch. On a totally related note: Do you guys think he’d be willing to play some defense and if so, could he do it in full goaltending gear? Asking for a friend. The friend is Boston general manager Peter Chiarelli.
Ty Anderson has been covering the Boston Bruins for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, is a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter, and can be contacted on Twitter, or emailed at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com