The Kings sentenced the Bruins to 1000 years of agony in a complete asskicking
The road goes on forever, and the bleeding only stops when you’re dead.
First Period
Boston strikes first with Elias Lindholm taking a Cole Koepke pass that found him completely unattended by the Kings, who put the Bruins up 1-0!
This turned out to be the punch in the mouth the Kings needed to wake up, and what happened next wasn’t pretty.
It started with Anze Kopitar receiving a long pass from Adrian Kempe, was able to get around the Bruins’ defense, and get Swayman down and out to tie things up with a backhander. 1-1 Everybody…
…Which set up yet another last minute of the period goal-against as Warren Foegele took a completely uncontested pass to get a tip-in shot while four Bruins just kind of watched Philip Danault, who had just whiffed on a scoring chance where he would’ve also been nearly uncontested, to make 2-1 Kings just before the beginning of the 2nd period.
2nd Period
Morgan Geekie breathed a little life into the Bruins, with a key keep-in from Pavel Zacha after both Boston and LA bobbled the puck at the Blueline, allowing him to make a pass straight up the gut to get an easy goal in front of Kuemper. 2-2 Everybody.
And then…the rest of the game happened.
Drew Doughty takes an unattended rebound from a Swayman save and hammers it home, 3-2 Kings…
Then Andrei Kuzmenko skulked the zone as what had to have been the 30th or 40th stretch pass that was never stopped by a player in Black and Gold found purchase as Adrien Kempe set Kuzmenko up for a golden opportunity. 4-2 Kings.
Also, Jeremy Swayman and Darcy Kuemper almost fought, but the linesmen stepped in to stop it before anything happened.
Very funny. Let them go, they’re in enough armor that they can’t really hurt each other or even land decent blows.
Anyway, on to the end.
Third Period
The Kings just victimized Boston at this point.
First up, was Quentin Byfield, who took an Alex Laferriere pass from a block who had to recover quickly to get it off his stick, and Byfield effectively split the D and wired the puck past Swayman blocker-side.
Next, it was Tanner Jeannot’s turn, as he tipped a Brandt Clarke shot from the point straight past Swayman.
Finally, Samuel Helenius, a relative newbie on the Kings, got his second NHL goal as he managed to go five hole on Jeremy Swayman.
Bruins lose 7-2.
The Charts from NaturalStatTrick to give you an idea of just how bad an asskicking this really was.
Game Notes
- The Bruins have been exposed a number of times this year for how their game is just not capable of hanging with the best of the best of the best of the league. Some of it is talent, some of it has been effort, and some of it is strategy failing to bring out the best in their players. This game got a little bit of everything exposed at once; the Defense is big and slow and can be beaten easily with stretch passes as they have to take extra effort to stay ahead of the play, there’s individually skilled players who can affect positive change on the ice but they rarely play at once and are bogged down by other forwards who don’t have that same level of skill, and if they do not get an A average minimum performance out of their one star, they’re toast. Oh yeah, and neither of their goalies are good enough to make up the difference right now. This was the asskicking they deserved against a team that gave the Bruins a good hard look at what the modern playoff team in the NHL looks like. Again.
- Fabian Lysell once again led the team in possession stats, but he was one of only three or four skaters to get even close to breaking even in any relevant category. This is the fourth time in five games that the Boston Bruins have failed to get 20 shots or more in an entire game. This team is either out of gas, out of shooters, out of luck, or all three. Frankly, I don’t know which option is worse.
- Jeremy Swayman should’ve been allowed to fight Darcy Kuemper. I don’t care if we gotta protect our goalies, the fact that they’re wearing something like 15 pounds of plastic and foam armor means they’re not throwing any punches that might result in a knockout. They’ll be fine.
- Regarding Swayman’s performance? It was bad! It was very bad! Was every goal against him bad? Not all of them, he did have to contend with his defense getting worked like a punch press on every single stretch pass the Kings tried, but this was a really rough performance for a guy set to be your #1 for the forseeable future.
- A 25 goal season for Morgan Geekie. Regardless of their decision on him at the end of the season; he will have been a lone bright spot in an ocean of ink. Good for him.
- Sacco must have been told that this is a “Michael Misa at bare minimum” kind of time for the Boston Bruins, because another goal he could’ve had a reasonable chance of winning a challenge on went unaddressed. The message is now crystal clear to the players; you are on your own to figure this out. The coaches will only set the lines, and they will not try to spark anything with a goalie change even if the situation might call for it. Also probably heralds that he is G O N E once the season is over.
- Don really should’ve taken a stab at getting Brandt Clarke. He isn’t a perfect player by any means but he’s certainly a bit more heads-up than some of these defenders they’ve been trotting out recently.
- We miss you Charlie and Hampus. I swear to god we didn’t know how bad it would get.
- Y’know for as much as 2 of the 3 California teams aren’t very good, it certainly feels like that early 2010’s magic is slowly seeping back into those franchises again. Who knows, maybe we’ll see how they do against Anaheim.
The Boston Bruins take a couple of days off to go lick their wounds in SoCal, and then go to Anaheim to take on the Ducks on Wednesday. That game drops the puck at 10pm.
We’ll see you then. Thanks for suffering through this.