BOSTON — There’s no fun fight story to overshadow the Bruins’ problems this time.
After the 6-1 loss in Game 2, the reaction was “Hey the Bruins were bad, but how about that crazy David Pastrnak-Matthew Tkachuk fight?”
Instead of talking about the Bruins’ inability to move the puck, conversations were spent on whether Pastrnak was showing great leadership or Tkachuk’s tactics were dirty.
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The spotlight landed where it belonged after Game 3.
The Bruins were bad and now they’re in a lot of trouble.
Boston had three shots in the first period, five in the second and 17 total in the game. That continued a disturbing trend from some late regular season games and in their losses to the Maple Leafs.
Florida’s first goal highlighted Boston’s continued inability to get the puck out of its own end.
Pavel Zacha collected the puck facing the boards, inside the faceoff circle to Jeremy Swayman’s right. He could have tried to keep the puck, turned and looked for passing options. He could have fed it back to Brandon Carlo, who had space around him in the corner. Instead, Zacha tried a no-look backhand pass toward the middle.
Trent Frederic wasn’t expecting it and the puck went into his feet. Anton Lundell grabbed the loose puck and started a sequence that culminated in Evan Rodrigues’ goal which put Boston in an early hole. For all the talk about making simple plays, Zacha tried to be clever and it was unnecessarily costly.
Too many times in the series, and all season, it has taken three and four attempts to get the puck out of the zone. In Games 2 and 3, that directly lead to Florida’s huge lead in chances and shots.
The problem feeds itself. The longer the Bruins are pinned in, the more tired the players become leading to even weaker clear attempts or icing.
It would be easy to point to the third period as progress, which the Bruins understandably did as they looked for positives to build off of and their two goals felt like a good step. But after taking a 4-0 lead early in the final frame, the Panthers knew they were unlikely to lose. They didn’t need to be at peak focus and they weren’t. For Boston, it was better than not playing well in the third period, but their play has to pick up when the game is still in doubt to create any real optimism.
Making matters worse, there’s a good chance the Bruins could be without Brad Marchand after he left the game with an injury before the third period. It was the Boston captain, whose energy and fight lifted them in Games 3 and 4 in Toronto. For a team struggling on offense, he’s someone they can’t afford to lose. It’s not like there’s someone with offensive skill waiting to fill in either.
It’s not reasonable to expect Jeremy Swayman to save them either. He has allowed nine goals in a little more than five periods in the last two games. He’s not the problem. If the Bruins played better in front of him, he’s given them a chance to win, but they haven’t been nearly good enough.
The Boston penalty kill, which had been negating opposing power plays at historic rates broke down too giving up four power-play goals.
There’s a lot to rebuild.
The optimism from after Game 1 feels like a distant memory. The Bruins have a lot of ground to make up and not a lot of time to do it.
Follow MassLive sports columnist Matt Vautour on Twitter at @MattVautour424.
