Bruins RECAP: Bruins receive another painful lesson in 7-4 LOSS

Well hey, guess what.

We’re the easy target now.

First Period

Things didn’t start ideal with a penalty kill, and it became a 5-on-3, and it especially didn’t go great with Jordan Eberle getting oodles of time and space to score a goal with the man advantage. 1-0 Kraken.

Mercifully, David Pastrnak is still here! He gets the longest pass imaginable and does a little trickery to even things up with a slick shot! 1-1 Everybody.

No further scoring, and then we head to the 2nd period.

Where all the really bad stuff happened.

2nd Period

3 minutes into the game the Bruins flub the puck, Berkly Catton and Jared McCann go on a rush, and Catton’s sharp angle shot somehow makes it through Swayman to put the Kraken up. 2-1 Kraken.

Thankfully, the Boston Bruins still have a David Pastrnak, who’s nifty passing to McAvoy drew a crowd to Charlie, and he got the return pass and a wide open cage to shoot at! 2-2 Everybody.

Unfortunately, that’s when things began to fall apart for good.

The Kraken’s 4th line decided to go bully Mason Lohrei for a semi-extended period of time, and were able to get the puck out to Ben Meyers who managed to get the shot through Swayman. 3-2 Kraken.

Then before the period ended…

Geez, guys.

Period ends with the Bruins down4-2.

Third Period

Endless pain hits as the Kraken managed to get a zone entry, and used a little bit of speed to get separation, which ended in Kaapo Kakko putting a bullet past Swayman. 5-2 Kraken.

Oh cool their prospect kid wanted to score again and the Kraken put all their effort into sending him on a little trip directly to Swayman effectively unbothered. 6-2 Kraken.

Mercifully, the Bruins finally stopped the bleeding a bit from a goal in tight from Mason Lohrei, who badly needed a positive coming out of this contest, and found one in being the 8th chance on a net-front scramble. 6-3 Kraken.

Finally, the Kraken penalty kill surrendered an opportunity, as Victor Arvidsson scored on the doorstep, bringing the score to 6-4 Kraken.

Unfortunately, Kaapo Kakko sealed things with an empty netter, and the Bruins lose this game 7-4.

Game Notes:

• Your TOI Leader was Charlie McAvoy, who played 23:51
• The Bruins outshot and outchanced the Kraken, but found out the hard way that this is Lane Lambert hockey; the stuff you usually do to win isn’t the way to beat them; when they can stretch your sorry defense like rubber, there’s almost nothing you can do to stop it. Seattle beat Boston using explosive speed to beat their so-called physical presences, and by stretching the ice out enough to get distance on them in open ice, or to clump them together to create screens.
• Mason Lohrei nights are always a treat. You either get two goals for, or he’s by far the worst defenseman on the ice, where it becomes abundantly clear that the most important part of his game, the one we’ve desperately hoped would develop, his ability to see the ice in front of him and identify positively ways to do defense correctly, is never, ever going to come in. You’ll never guess which one he was in a 7-4 blowout.
  • Also the continued insistence on Lohrei – Peeke as a pairing; using two of the worst Bruins defenders currently dressed on the same pairing that bring out the worst in each other, should earn Marco Sturm a public flogging.
• Also, as it turns out? Jonathan Aspirot is not a first pairing defender! He got exposed pretty badly tonight, and especially in the department of speed and puck security. It should be a serious concern that the Bruins effectively have a 1D and it’s by default!
• The penalty kill was miserable tonight. Seattle came away with 3 chances out of 4 going in, and they only responded with a middling 1 out of 3 chances against the worst penalty kill in the National Hockey League. I said there was no excuse in the preview, and I mean it now; you were given golden opportunities and ran it down your leg. Unacceptable. Beyond unacceptable.
• Jeremy Swayman had a bad showing. He was also working on his fourth start of the last 7 days because this organization has completely and utterly given up on his backup ever being helpful, and his defense remains an absolute travesty. More than consistency, more than winning hearts and minds, Swayman needs some goddamn help, and he’s not getting it right now.
  • If you were gonna just not play Joonas Korpisalo you should’ve just given Swayman 10 million. It’s not gonna change anyone’s opinion on him and you’ll at least be able to say the money Korpisalo makes is being used for something.
• David Pastrnak is now on the precipice of being the 2nd Boston Bruin this year to reach 20 goals. I get the distinct feeling this is going to be a very exclusive club that only he and Geekie get the password and key to enter.
• The Boston Bruins seem to be waiting on one of the many swings that the 2025-26 NHL seems to be giving out to their teams at total random, and I’m afraid, with the Olympic Break fast approaching, they’re not gonna get it. They need to pick a direction for this team and make it fast.
• If you’re trying to cope by saying that the Kraken are only on this winning streak they’re on because the Pacific sucks or that their competition lately has been lacking…well, congratulations. You got a game that exemplified that latter point pretty well. That doesn’t make me feel any better, and frankly says a helluva lot more about how much work needs to be done to improve this roster than anything about Seattle’s recent string of luck.
• Just gonna keep saying it until it sinks in: This was who we were supposed to be. It was supposed to hurt, it was supposed to be ugly, they had enough talent to maybe stave it off for a bit, but this is where we’re back to like the end of last season; bad defense, worse offense except on the power play, inconsistent goaltending, no prospects worth calling up that wouldn’t be served better playing in college. This is about accumulating capital for the offseason. Or should be, anyway. It’s a little frustrating that little has happened so far.

Bruins finally come home to play the Calgary Flames on Thursday evening, that game is on at 7pm EST.

We’ll see you there.