The Bruins start their post-Christmas street journey on Saturday at a crossroads.
They’ve misplaced 4 in a row, with the lone “shiny spot” being the loser level in a shootout loss to Canucks, a sport they need to have put away lengthy earlier than it went to further periods.
Final we noticed the lads, the designated “must-win” sport towards the Canadiens on Dec. 23 produced an epic third-period meltdown to ship them into the break with much more questions than they’d simply 10 days in the past.
And to make issues worse, they begin the journey off towards the most popular group within the NHL. Sure, that’s who the Buffalo Sabres are proper now. The Sabres, who’ve missed the playoffs for 14 straight seasons, have received seven in a row. Firstly of the streak, they fired GM Kevyn Adams and changed him with Jarmo Kekalainen, the previous Columbus GM who has set a demanding tone.
Now the Sabres enter Saturday’s sport only a level behind the B’s with two video games in hand. With video games in Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and Seattle to observe – and with Boston a lackluster 8-9 on the street – the B’s might discover themselves in massive hassle of their quest for a playoff spot. They’re already exterior the Japanese Convention bracket and all of the groups forward of them, aside from the Rangers and Crimson Wings, have performed fewer video games than them.
Maybe that may work of their favor. After the loss to the Habs, David Pastrnak mentioned he felt the group was mentally fatigued and, although which will sound like excuse making to some, the schedule has certainly been brutal.
However make no mistake, there are extra points dealing with this group than simply weariness. Whereas the B’s skill to attain objectives has been a pleasing shock, they aren’t the defensive group they hoped they might be. After back-to-back video games by which they gave up 12 objectives to Ottawa and Montreal, the B’s at the moment are permitting a median of three.29 objectives a sport, rating them twenty fourth within the 32-team league. Their penalty kill, so strong early within the season, has cratered to nineteenth within the league at 79.2%. They’ve now surrendered not less than one power-play objective in eight straight video games.
Whereas the defensive points can not all be positioned on the ft of the defensemen – Pastrnak, the group’s main point-producer with 40, is minus-11 – you do need to surprise what the D corps will seem like when this street journey is over. They’ve bought 4 defensemen who’re rehabbing from harm. The closest one to returning seems to be Jonathan Aspirot, who coach Marco Sturm mentioned is not going to be accessible for the Sabres sport however may very well be after that.
With the best way Aspirot performed earlier than struggling an higher physique harm in Winnipeg on Dec. 11, he deserves to be again within the lineup when wholesome. Contemplating Andrew Peeke’s latest struggles in a top-four function (minus-5 within the final three video games, team-worst minus-12 on the season), placing Aspirot with Hampus Lindholm (minus-8) and slotting Peeke on the third pair appears to be value a strive. The left-shot Aspirot confirmed in skill to play on the fitting aspect when Charlie McAvoy was out and basically performed a top-pair function with Nikita Zadorov.
Aspirot shouldn’t be the one D-man who’s nearing a return. Veterans Jordan Harris, Henri Jokiharju and Michael Callahan, a call-up from Windfall, are within the combine. Additionally at their disposal is waiver wire pick-up Vladislav Kolyachonok and Victor Soderstrom, who was returned to Windfall simply previous to the Montreal sport however had performed fairly properly in his time in Boston.
The previous hockey adage says which you can by no means have too many defensemen, however these are a whole lot of our bodies. It’s onerous to not assume that B’s administration is not less than considering some form of transfer, particularly with the latest struggles. So let’s do some spitballing.
Mason Lohrei has been an improved participant since he was a wholesome scratch for 5 video games early within the season, however he’s not the form of defenseman to be on the ice in key, lead-preserving conditions late in a sport.
What he might do, not less than to those eyes, is run a primary power-play unit, however it doesn’t seem like that’s within the playing cards for him any time quickly with McAvoy up prime on PP1 and the group having success on the person benefit. So if the B’s usually are not in place to maximise his abilities, it could make sense for the B’s to see if they might discover a extra impactful participant for him, whether or not it’s a good two-way ahead or even when it’s a much less flashy however extra defensively dependable third pairing.
Will that occur? It’s anybody’s guess. But when they wish to hold competing for a playoff spot in these early levels of their rebuild-on-the-fly, they’ve to determine a method to higher hold the puck out of their very own web.
