This game sucked.
Let’s just get this over with.
Circle I: The Demesne of Sorrow
The Bruins effectively allowed Mason Marchment and Matt Duchene to set up a cycle completely unimpeded and let up the opening goal a few seconds after the first minute of the game.
Then Mason Lohrei got called, a penalty shot was awarded, and Evgenii Dadonov roofed it to beat Jeremy Swayman clean. 2-0 Stars.
oh hey Charlie Coyle scored, that’s neat.
End of the 1st. 2-1 Stars.
Circle II: The Abyss beyond God’s Light
The reckoning of seeing something once beautiful and mighty reduced to a hollow corpse of itself is truly, fascinatingly, grotesque and awe inspiring.
You think back to the great collapses of empires as though it all came down in one great explosion of fire and a ruination of a great monument. The reality is often quite mundane.
People still lived in Rome after it’s fall. After three days of violence, there were still people who stayed in the city. Some were lucky, others were just able to survive.
I wonder what it was like on day 4 when the Visigoths left. The first real day of quiet after everything they knew had been picked off the city like meat from a bone.
I dunno. After an effort like this period, the mind tends to wander when you know a game is categorically over after 20 straight minutes of the Dallas Stars dog-walking the Boston Bruins around; beating them at just about everything that mattered.
End of the 2nd. 5-1 Stars.
Circle III: Ṭ̸̜̱̘̊̉̾́ĥ̶̼e̴̹̟̲͋͒́̈̍̅ ̶̡̪̫̽͒̅̚͝ͅṼ̶̡̪̝̖̼̄o̷̱͠i̵̢̩̰̮̥̦͂̊̇͒̆̓̋d̸͓͇͛̋͂͌̅ͅ ̷̼̮̠̹̰́̈͌͜ͅT̴͙̠͛͆̔͆̿h̴̤͔͘e̶͕̐̓̚͘͜͜͠ ̴̧̾V̴̨̨̧͙͙͂̓̒͐̑͒ǒ̷̘͔̥͔̬̱̭̓̀̉̇ï̷̦̋d̶̡͍̣͓̜͓́́͂̇̃̉̕ ̶̼̘̹͖̎̓͑̎̓͗T̷͎̥͒͛̋̋͆͌h̴͙̦̭̓̓́̀̿ḛ̴͙̥̼̮̲̈̀̕ ̶̱̭̇̿̒͠V̸̧̭̯̭͇̓̃͌͝ o̶͈̪̅̇͆͘͠ i̴̗͇̬̖͔͗͐̏̍̿͝͠ ḓ̷̲͛̐ -̸̢̺̙̽̈̒̍̒̀̉͐̔̌̄̔͘͝͝
I don’t want to keep going I don’t want to keep going I don’t want to keep going I don’t want to keep going-
Boston Bruins lose 7-2.
Game Notes
- Mason Lohrei played the most out of any Boston Bruins defenseman! I will go on record to say “That was a tactical error on your part, Jim!”
- The Boston Bruins miss Hampus Lindholm badly. Would he have been able to completely save this effort? Probably not. But let’s be clear, he’s been the Bruins best defenseman this year. Everybody else was just atrocious. If there was one thing that defined the Stars ability to score tonight; it was space. The space they were able to open up with skating, the space they were able to open up with passing, the space they were able to take ample advantage of at the net-front. This was a drubbing the Bruins earned every second of it by completely failing to meet the pace of the Stars.
- Oh yeah, and penalties. So many penalties. Most of them completely avoidable, and some just absolutely asinine. This was a game where refpuck became a big part of the deal, and then
- I brought this up back in that novel about the Bruins malaise but man am I getting sick of Elias Lindholm playing absolutely lights out one night and then being completely unusable the next. Sure, the B’s got their faceoff wins. Good for them. They need more than just faceoff wins. They need goals. They need plays made from players that aren’t adjacent to David Pastrnak. They to be able to do something, anything with the possession that they get from those wins they’re getting, or they could win every faceoff and it wouldn’t matter. Are there other players for which this could apply? Absolutely, but he’s the one who was given a big long contract in the offseason and hasn’t scored in over a month.
- Pulling Mark Kastelic off the 4th line seems to have turned it into a pumpkin; they were completely useless at evens tonight; all three of them well under 45% in the relevant possession metrics.
- Jeremy Swayman gave up a career high 7 goals against the Stars, and had a chance on maybe four of them. Just a poor performance all around but man he was not getting the help he needed. He absolutely earned his .816 SV% with some careless work while Dallas has possession…but I will contend that the team served it up to him.
- I mean, look at this heat map, dude. You’d think Boston played this game without defensemen with how much unfettered access they gave the Stars.
- I’m really starting to get deeply concerned that David Pastrnak may end up the only player on the team with more than 20 goals this year, and apparently he’s hurt somehow. What the hell is the excuse for the other presumably healthy skaters?
- At least Charlie Coyle is starting to pick his game back up. It would be nice if he kept that going.
- Schedule gets a lot easier after tonight. Better take advantage of it. Start by winning on Saturday afternoon.
- Get better, Hampus. We miss you!
What a disaster of a game. Let’s forget all about it on Saturday when they play the Blues at 1pm EST, okay?
See you then.