Spoked B-wilderment
Well, this situation escalated quickly. The Bruins who once looked like a sure-fire cup contender may instead be on the path of a “chicken and beer” level colossal cataclysmic collapse. If we’re invoking the three c’s, you know it’s bad. Since February 8th, the Bruins are:
26th in the league in wins (3)
32nd in the league in regulation wins (0, and there are only 32 teams folks)
25th in the league in goals per game (2.70)
31st in the league in power play percentage (9.7%)
Across the sheet, the Panthers, Maple Leafs, and Red Wings are a combined 20-4-0 during that same span and are gaining ground on Boston.
Okay, why is this happening?
First Things First
This is NOT, I repeat, NOT a goaltending problem. Get the message? Good, allow me to explain. If Jeremy Swayman has 43 saves in a game and the Bruins still lose, we really can’t blame him can we? And sure, Ullmark has been a little shaky since coming back from the All-Star break, but he has knocked the rust off enough to give the Bruins a good chance to win. Celtics coach turned executive Brad Stevens once said, “we were doing great until we lost our minds” in a post game presser. This very much applies here.
There is no reason why a good team should continuously surrender a two or more goal lead and send themselves to six straight extra sessions. The M.O. of Jim Montgomery as a coach is that he wants and encourages the defensemen to be aggressive on the offensive end. He allows them to push the boundaries and join rushes. That is perfectly fine. But just like in football, there comes a point where you need to stop blitzing and just play the coverage - and that time comes when you have….you guessed it, a lead. Up 2-0 or whatever the score is, you don’t need to have your D-core continue to push. Play conversative. Honestly, let’s run it back to when the Flyers decided to wait out the 1-3-1 trap of the Lightning a few years ago which you can watch here.
See what I mean? Tampa played so conservative that Philly just stood there and let the officials blow the whistle. They were not going to entertain them by just falling into the trap. This happened three different times during that game. This is not what is happening with the Bruins, and that sure as heck did not happen in the recent bouts against Vancouver and Seattle. As a result, the goalies are under siege more than they should be and naturally they are getting tired back there. Then you go to overtime and shootouts and lose because Swayman and Ullmark are exhausted and the skaters can’t put the puck in the net. The Bruins still have the best goalie tandem in the league, but that is being negated by just playing hard and not smart.
In Addition
It also doesn’t help that this team constantly looks frenetic and unsettled in big moments. It’s easy to suggest it’s because Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci said goodbye. Maybe that does have some role, but it is not the main problem. Boston can’t keep leaving the netminders alone on islands. They do not have the elite defensive personnel to make up for it. Hampus Lindholm should know better, but he is having a bad year. Mason Lohrei and Parker Wotherspoon are still learning. Meanwhile, Matt Grzelyck just exists. If you need to keep putting him with Charlie McAvoy to “get him going” at this stage of his career, that is the textbook definition of a red flag. If only the Bruins traded for a very good D-man to help those guys out. Oh wait, they did.
Remember Dmitri Orlov? You know, the big trade deadline acquisition from the year prior? You let him walk when you didn’t have the cap space to pay him. It was probably going to happen regardless as he was rated by many as the top free agent in the class. But there wasn’t even an effort made to keep him. You know what else could be helpful to close games out? Some physical players to grind out the rest of the game and make life miserable for the other team on the forecheck. If only you had two guys like that to help out on the bottom six. Oh I’m sorry, you had that too!
Hello! Tyler Bertuzzi and Garnett Hathaway make a living doing that which is part of the reason why you traded for them, like you did Orlov in the first place. Let’s keep up the theme of bad decision making shall we? A first round draft pick was packaged in return as part of these deals. So let me get this straight, three guys come into the organization slated to fill roles on what looked to be a contender after the best regular season ever by an NHL team, and none of them get retained? That’s bad roster management which right now could be a fireable offense on any other team. But the Bruins love nepotism and scapegoating, so they will pin this on other people and continue to make the wrong roster decisions and keep the guys who are making those moves.
Don Sweeney and Cam Neely let Orlov, Hathaway, and Bertuzzi walk out the door and replaced them with James Van Riemsdyk, Morgan Geekie, and Kevin Shattenkirk. In what world or dimension does that make any sense? You gave up three perfect fits for two old guys and a young player that two organizations said “nah, we’re good” on. If this isn’t enough to bang a head against a brick wall, then I don’t know what is. Hathaway is thriving in Philly, Bertuzzi would’ve been better off staying as he seems to have worn out his welcome in Toronto, and Orlov honestly just should have stayed put for so many different reasons.
The Bruins had been linked to so many different guys to help the team. Elias Lindholm was brought up for months, but naturally they did not pull the trigger and he ended up going from Calgary to Vancouver. Boston has played in more overtime games than anyone in the league this year and trying to pin this on the goalies alone while suggesting trading Ullmark to upgrade the roster is absolutely ridiculous. That would just create another hole and completely shatter team morale. To tie it back to coaching, Montgomery’s seat should be very hot for not knowing to call the dogs back when he needs to and putting his elite tandem in bad positions.
Once again, a promising season is in shambles due to decision making. Boston is no longer a contender. People are concerned and frustrated, and rightfully so. The Bruins live in their own world. In that world, the front office takes no accountability, the ownership is absent, and the Kyle Shanahan of the NHL lacks the awareness to coach the game to win when it matters most.