Winning in the NHL isn’t easy, but it certainly shouldn’t be as difficult as the Boston Bruins are making it look.
It was more of the same uninspired hockey that’s become the norm so far of this year’s Bruins on Saturday afternoon at TD Garden, where the offense was minimal, the defense was questionable, and the urgency was…well, there wasn’t much of any in a 3-2 overtime loss to the St. Louis Blues.
Since beginning November with back-to-back shutout wins, Boston has gone 2-2-2 in its last six games and is now 8-8-3 overall.
Taking one step forward and one step back was, at the very least, excusable to begin the year. But as they approach the pivotal 20-game mark of their schedule, it’s beginning to feel as if the Bruins team may never find their way out of purgatory.
“That’s a concern all the time when you’re a .500 team,” Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery said. “It doesn’t matter what sport. Our consistency, our puck pressure, and our puck management have been things that have not been very consistent for us.”
Montgomery has made the same point ad nauseum for weeks on end since the start of the year. Still, with nearly a quarter of the season gone by already, it’s one that his team hasn’t yet figured out.
“I think we have to really, really, really buy into just playing a simple style of hockey,” Charlie Coyle said. “I know that’s a cliche, but it works. It works for us. It works for the way we play.”
Boston was in the driver’s seat at the end of the first period on Saturday but shifted into neutral, hoping St. Louis would do the same and put just 11 shots on net over the final 42:53 of action.
Lack of Offense Has Bruins Singing the Blues
“We didn’t have a lot of juice in the tank, and I don’t know why we didn’t,” said Montgomery. “We had legs in the first and kind of fell off after that… We should’ve been able to close that game out and win 2-1 today.”
Goalie Joonas Korpisalo did all he could to make that a possibility for the Bruins, stopping 28 of the 31 shots that came in his direction. No one else did, though.
Trent Frederic had two goals, only to dry up along with the rest of the offense.
David Pastrnak landed four shots on goal, but none of note, which is more than some of the other should-be top producers can say for themselves.
Brad Marchand, Elias Lindholm, and Pavel Zacha combined for zero shots on net in yet another lifeless performance where the Bruins played as if they were waiting for the other team to lose rather than winning the game for themselves.
Somehow, though, the Bruins are sitting in a playoff position, occupying a third-place spot in the Atlantic Division. But with the way things are going, it’s only a matter of time until someone takes that from them, too.
“You have to take initiative, take responsibility, hold yourselves accountable, and hold each other accountable,” Coyle said. “These little funks that happen every year, good teams find ways to put a stop to it quicker than other teams.”
If that’s the case, the Bruins aren’t acting fast enough, or perhaps that’s too hard for them as well.
