Another miserable offensive effort has the B’s down at .500 again
[weak groan of agony]
First Period:
The Preds basically had unrestricted access to the front of the net. Eventually, late in the period, Max Jones got sent off for tripping, and a mere 11 seconds later Ryan O’Reilly got a tip past Jeremy Swayman off a shot from Roman Josi. 1-0 Preds.
Miserable, but unfortunately that was not the worst the game gave us. Let’s move on, shall we?
Second Period:
Boston played a little better! They kept things moving!
Unfortunately the Bruins also kept allowing Nashville near unrestricted access to the net, and Tommy Novak capitalized off of Boston’s inability to clear the net and potted Nashville’s second goal. 2-0 Preds.
Third goal of the year for Mr. Novak. He’d be 2nd on the team in goals if he wore Black and Gold out of that.
Let’s just get this over with.
Third Period:
Things evened out in the third, but the B’s offensive woes continued as they couldn’t find a way to beat Juuse Saros, and in fact they found ways to beat themselves; such as a turnover from Zadorov and a failed keep-in that gave Gustav Nyquist a breakaway, and he wired the puck home to make Nashville’s lead essentially unassailable. 3-0 Preds.
The B’s tried to salvage something out of an empty net chance, but there was no hope. Boston also gave up a goal to Luke Evangelista, getting his first goal of the season on an empty netter.
Bruins hand Nashville their first win of the season in a 4-0 Shutout.
Game Notes:
- Your TOI leader was Hampus Lindholm, with 22:36 logged.
- The Boston Bruins offense is collapsing at a rate that should frankly scare you. The B’s do not have the juice at any stage of the game, nor do they have any coordination with the puck. They cannot generate dangerous chances nor can they meaningfully attack the net. They are slow in ways that should not be possible. Their Top 6 isn’t getting it done, nor is their middle six minute-munchers. When both your stars and apparently your 4th line are so very vital to your team success, you’re in a lot of trouble. The Bruins need more from their top lines and badly. There is simply no other alternative.
- Even worse, the Bruins defense has, at least in my opinion, become utterly dependent on Charlie McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm playing at their A+++ or things are getting squirrel-ly in a hurry. They fail to get out of the zone with depressing regularity, and now they’re beginning to have issues with puck control out at the point in the offensive zone. I would say that Jeremy Swayman should seek financial compensation for having to put up with this, but he already got that, so I suppose he should ask for tips from his skaters.
- 0-fer on the power play, which seems to be getting worse with every consecutive penalty given. It’s feeling deeply sisyphean in how useless it is. Currently sitting in at 24th overall and frankly if the Ducks weren’t on some insane heater of bad power plays it might be noteworthy. Something has to change there.
- Nikita Zadorov hasn’t really been bad necessarily as a Bruin (though tonight wasn’t exactly a banner night for him), but he cannot stay out of the box to save his life, and while their PK hasn’t suffered yet, it would probably be better with him on it rather than him watching it once per game.
- Mason Lohrei turning back into the guy he was during the regular season last year; one who struggles with decision-making, has deeply confusing issues with puck-management, and begins floating out in space where he shouldn’t be, is immeasurably disappointing. I was told he was better than this. I wanted to believe it, too. Now I’m just annoyed and exhausted.
- The Max Jones experiment is over until proven otherwise. Routinely a net-negative in possession, and was directly responsible for the final two penalties of the first period that got Nashville their first goal. This was, for the record, the best game he’s played in a Bruins uniform to date. That should be mortifying.
- Elias Lindholm is one of the most mystifying players the Bruins have; he’s played every game, and he has effectively no middle ground in on-ice performance. He has either been an extreme positive, as in well over 60% in the shooting metrics, or an extreme negative, struggling around 30% at best. Tonight was a bad Lindholm night, and even with how Pasta and Zacha were driving fans nuts, he stood out. For me it feels like he keeps standing out because of how much of a pendulum swing in effectiveness he has. At least he won most of his faceoffs.
- Jeremy Swayman had a .927 SV% night. Given how Boston is playing, he’s gonna, bare minimum, need to be a .960 or above player in order to get anything done.
- There is a lot of concern from fans about Jim Montgomery and whether or not he’s able to properly motivate this team into playing better. It’s natural I think for fans to start blaming higher leadership for bad stretches like this, especially …but I think the better question that this team may have to come to terms with is…what else can he do beyond swap on-roster players? Call up Fabian Lysell? Let Tyler Johnson have a go or two? Keep starting fights until you accidentally get a team’s star in the bin for five minutes? Have all the coaches scream until the paint peels in the locker room and at Warrior? He’s got the ingredients he’s been handed; a team that may have gone in on one side of the game when it probably should’ve gone in on a multitude of others, and now he’s gotta make a dish with them. When Cole Koepke is leading your team in points after 7 games? Something has gone very, very, wrong and I’m gonna be real; a coach can only do so much. Their issues are, at least I’m afraid they are, a little too big for one guy to fix that doesn’t involve unrestricted access to a buyout calendar and a list of upcoming free agents.
- It’s still early. Maybe playing in Boston will wake them up.
Well, I hope you enjoyed the easy game this week because next up is the Dallas Stars as they make their way to Boston. That game is on Thursday at 7pm.
We’ll see you there.