There were more tricks than treats for the Bruins on Thursday night as they were handed another uninspiring loss.
Boston fell 8-2 to the Carolina Hurricanes at Lenovo Center on Halloween night in a game where the Bruins had no answers on the penalty kill, power play or even in net. Coach Jim Montgomery pulled Jeremy Swayman in the middle of the second period after he gave up six goals. The uninspiring play continued despite Montgomery overhauling his forward lines again in hopes it would create an offensive spark.
But it was more of the same from the Bruins — taking too many penalties, not being able to kill one off and the offense being lifeless.
Here are five takeaways from Thursday’s lopsided loss.
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Jeremy Swayman pulled
The Bruins star goalie was benched halfway through the second period after giving up six goals on 21 shots, but Swayman didn’t get much help in front of him.
Brandon Carlo deflected two pucks that led to the Hurricanes’ goals in a rough first period, the penalty kill was nearly non-existent and the power play had prime opportunities to stay on pace with Carolina. Each team had three penalties in the first. The Hurricanes scored twice and the Bruins scored only once.
Joonas Korpisalo took over for Swayman and gave up two goals on 13 shots.
Uncompetitive first period set the tone
The Hurricanes opened the scoring 6:28 into the game thanks to red-hot a Jack Roslovic, who potted his fifth goal of the season. The Bruins answered on the power play with a Brad Marchand goal, but Carolina quickly took advantage of Boston’s sloppy play. Three goals in less than a minute — including two power-play goals — gave the Hurricanes a 4-1 lead after one.
It took 10 minutes and a power play for the Bruins to get their first shot on net. While they capitalized on the power play with Marchand’s second goal of the season, Boston allowed the Hurricanes to take control of the game with three goals in less than a minute. The Bruins cut the lead in half when Hampus Lindholm scored at even strength to make it 4-2 before the first came to a close.
The Bruins were outshot 10-5 after 20 minutes and didn’t look mentally focused — a trend that carried through the rest of the game.
Penalty kill doing things that haven’t been done in years
The penalties have hindered the Bruins early on and that remained the same on Thursday. After giving up two power-play goals in the first, the penalty kill’s struggles carried over into the second. Andrei Svechnikov scored his second goal of the game — the first also came on the power play.
It was the third time the Bruins gave up three power-play goals in a game through the first 11 this season. As noted by 98.5 The Sports Hub’s Ty Anderson, Boston surrendered three power-play goals only three times in the last 437 games.
The Bruins had 124 penalty minutes going into the game, good for third in the NHL behind the Philadelphia Flyers and the Utah Hockey Club. They added 10 more, including one from Nikita Zadorov — who’s been Boston’s biggest offender this season.
Power play looked lost
Boston went 1-for-5 on the power play, with Marchand being the only player to capitalize. The Bruins didn’t get shots off on every man-advantage, and often made too many passes trying to wait for the perfect setup. They had two 5-on-3 chances — one of which was where Marchand scored — but the power play was lifeless after that.
Offense and defense not in sync
Not only are the Bruins struggling to score, they’re having trouble generating shots on net. They had just five in each of the first two periods and X more in the third. The chemistry isn’t there and no amount of line shuffling has worked thus far. The Bruins look like they’re waiting around for someone else to do something on the ice, and it’s resulted in too many passes and not enough scoring chances.
All told, the Bruins were outshot 33-16.
The defense did contribute to the scoring with a goal, but they didn’t pass the eye test in front of Swayman with undisciplined play. They were unable to contain the Hurricanes at even strength and on the power play especially in front of the net.
