Bruins RECAP: Defense short-circuits in 6-2 Loss to Ottawa

A night best described as “enlightening”.

1st Period

Things started poorly.

Very.

Very.

VERY poorly for the Bruins.

On the Bright side, David Pastrnak uncorked a missile to avoid the B’s getting shut out.

The Period ended with a score of 3-1

2nd Period

Things did not improve, as the Sens remained embedded in the B’s offensive zone, and it only continued to get worse from there.

Sheesh.

At least Charlie McAvoy got himself a goal!

Good stuff, Chuck!

Anyway back to suffering. Fabian Zetterlund, feel free to do the honors.

Thanks, I only want to cry a lot.

3rd Period

There was penalties! There was punching!

But that doesn’t count towards the score, no matter how much the drunk guy in the rafters says it should.

The Bruins lose 6-2.

Game Notes

• Your TOI leader was Charlie McAvoy, who logged 21:59 tonight.
• By just number of shot attempts, this was a fairly even game. The big difference was two-fold; shot danger and goaltenders. The Ottawa Senators basically founded a town in the offensive zone, and specifically the highest danger portion of the ice, and the Bruins backcheck just did not respond to it in any way; shape or form. If they did, it was largely in the form of impotent struggling, which did not help for much of anything. I understand if fans happen to like individual parts of the blueline (and definitely get it if you don’t), but the whole thing needs a hard upgrade or two because certain individuals on this team, and it is not just the whipping boy, need to be playing down a pairing at most. It was the crushing lack of ability to get the puck out of the zone that failed them tonight as it’s failed them the last few times they’ve played Ottawa.
• It is a little darkly funny that Morgan Geekie and David Pastrnak together are now just the lifeblood of the Bruins offense. Sometimes the depth will have their days, but it really is just Pasta and Geeks out on an island while the rest of the team plays catchup.
• Charlie McAvoy got his first goal of the year and not a minute too soon, though it’s a little odd since he has rebounded in terms of offensive on-ice impact pretty significantly, so I am a little surprised he’s taken this long to get there. Still, happy birthday, Chuckie.
• I wanted to wait on this because he’s been hurt so often but man…Hampus Lindholm is struggling badly. He had some pretty gruesome shifts this game and was not ready for what Ottawa was bringing. I do like what he brings in terms of mobility, but it’s clear there’s some rust that’s set in a little deeper than anyone would like with his game.
• While I have enjoyed the season a lot more than last year, I do think it’s important to remember this team is still re-tooling. This isn’t like year two of Hagens and Zellers being on the team and putting up with their teething troubles; this is a team that was anticipated to be very bad and analytically is already pretty bad punching above it’s weight thanks to the game-warping talent it does have, and we should enjoy that! But the expectations need to be tempered. This team is deeply flawed and needs serious upgrading, and no amount of win streaks or positive play is going to deviate that path.
• That said, I will say it’s good that just about every Bruin came out of that deeply unhappy about how they played it. If there’s one unambiguous positive about Sturm’s system, you can tell the buy-in is nearly universal, which means when they deviate from it they know it and own it.
• The Joonas Korpisalo experiment seems to be, as Ty Anderson on social media pointed out, beginning to mirror the 2016-17 season. If you don’t remember, the B’s started a bit slow, and Anton Khudobin, who’d otherwise been a perfectly fine backup, had sort of gone into this very annoying rhythm of having a strong game buffered between two sub-.900 ones, and it was like that with every game. That led to Tuukka Rask taking on way too many starts, and thus wearing him out quicker than they’d hoped, especially when Zane McIntyre turned out to not be the goalie of the future. The parallels are there…and frankly, I don’t care for them. Korpi has to be better. He just has to be.
  • Though in fairness, there’s only so much you can do when the Sens basically can’t not have a dangerous shot. Help your damn goalie, man.
• But hey! Jimmy Hagens and Will Zellers had a pretty good night in the prelims for the WJC! That’ll be fun to start watching!
• Thank f!#king god we don’t have to see this team for the rest of the season. The rest of the dorks in the Atlantic can deal with that.

The B’s have one more game before the holiday, and it is a big one; Montreal on the night before the night before Christmas. That game starts at 7pm EST.

We’ll see you there!