After Limp Dick Effort Results In Fifth Straight Loss, The Floundering Bruins May Well Be In Deep Shit
The Edmonton Oilers visited frigid Boston Tuesday night for a tilt between teams going in opposite directions. Last year’s Campbell Bowl winners arrived on a 14-3-1 heater while the scuffling Bruins had lost four straight and five of six. Even though it was their third game in four days, that was no excuse for the dogshit effort the Bs put forth before an equally tepid sold-out crowd. Outshot 29-12 and trailing 3-0 after two periods, the home team showed a little bit of life in the third but never threatened to make a game of it, dropping a 4-0 decision and raising more questions about the team that lately more resembles the last days of shitcanned bench boss Jim Montgomery rather than early weeks of his replacement, Joe Sacco of Meffa (shoutout Bob's Italian Foods).
Like, for example, does the front office genuinely believe that the roster it constructed is built for a post-season run? Or even a post-season appearance?
Are Don Sweeney, Cam Neely, and Charlie Jacobs getting proper bang for the $87-and-a-half million bucks being spent? Methinks not.
For a team that spends nearly to the $88M salary cap and purportedly has aspirations of a playoff run, the results have been pretty underwhelming even though they're currently third in the Atlantic with with 45 points after 43 games played. Tonight's opponent, the still-dangerous Tampa Bay Lightning are just a point behind the Bs but have a whopping five games in hand (due to hurricane-induced postponements) and could leapfrog Boston with a win, pushing the Bs down to the first Wild Card spot. Sentimental favorite Columbus, with 42 points, is the second Wild Card team and has a pair of games in hand on the Bruins. Not to mention Ottawa (41 points in 39 GP) and the resurgent, hot-as-hell Habs (41 points in 40 GP).
MoneyPuck currently has the Bs with a 58% chance of making the playoffs. However, The Athletic's model only gives the Bruins a 39% chance of making the playoffs, a 30% decrease from a month ago. Regardless of which number you think is accurate, there's absolutely no denying that the numbers to follow are fucking atrocious and most certainly do not fill Black & Gold followers with even a smidge of confidence.
Boston’s -24 goal differential is, by far, the worst among the 16 teams currently in a playoff spot (Columbus and Vancouver are both -7 while the other 13 teams are on the + side). Only six teams have scored fewer than the 111 goals tallied by the Bs and only six have allowed more than the 135 they’ve coughed up thus far. Their 2.58 goals for per game is 29th out of 32 teams and their 9.3 shooting percentage is better than just four other teams.
Their once-potent power play is clicking at a woeful 12.4% and is ranked 31st (only the Isles 11% is worse). Just three teams have fewer than their 17 power-play goals and they’ve surrendered five shorthanded goals (only two teams have given up more). The Bruins 8.8 net power play percentage is the worst in the league.
Boston's sloppy penalty killing is 25th in the league, snuffing out just 75.9% of opposing power plays while just two teams have given up more than the 32 power play goals the Bs have allowed opponents. They’ve scored just two shorthanded goals and their 77.4 net penalty killing percentage is also 25th.
One of the few bright spots has been at the dot, where just five teams best Boston’s 52.3 winning percentage on face-offs. The one category the Bruins lead the league in, PIM with 442, isn’t indicative of team toughness but rather a lack of discipline and mental errors. Right now, the Bruins have more problems than a math book and players sound like they did shortly before Monty was turfed.
But Sweeney and Neely already played the 'Fire the Coach' card and put their remaining eggs in Joe Sacco's basket. Sacco, who was last a head coach in 2013, provided an early bump for his charges, going 7-2 in his first nine games. but the team has petered out since with a 5-7-2 record and has looked shitty doing so. I hesitate to put much blame on the coach when the team's most recent outside addition was a waiver pick-up from a non-playoff squad who has put up 0-0--0 and 17 penalty minutes in eight games. And he's on the second power play unit.
Speaking of 'fire', the Causeway faithful showed their long-simmering frustration with the GM by sporadically chanting "Fi-re Swee-ney" throughout the game and one can't blame them given the lethargic effort being put forth by the shittily constructed roster. It'd be one thing if this was a small market roster or an owner who was still prioritizing profits over all else. But this is a cap team in a major market not getting it done and is in seriously danger of falling out of the top eight in the Wales.
The Bs have scored two or fewer goals in four of their last seven games (2, 1, 1, and 0) and so clearly could use a shot in the arm. Namely, an injection of youth from Patriarca Country that may well goose the offense and wake this team up. Matt Poitras impressed as a 19-year-old rookie last year until shoulder surgery ended his campaign. He has 8-10--18 in 21 games with Providence but inexplicably hasn't played with the parent club since November.
Why? When only three teams are scoring at a worse clip than the Bs, why hasn't Sweeney called him up to give Sacco his first opportunity to see what he can do with the kid? Why doesn't he give Swedish forward Fabian Lysell (5-13--18 in 28) more than Dixie cup of coffee to see what he can contribute? How about giving the skilled Russian forward Georgii Merkulov (7-20--27 in 30) an extended look? The Bruins need to do something different soon or they'll be looking up at WC2 before you know it.
Like her son, Brad Marchand's mom has got jokes.
Huge congratulations to my old pal Chris Rooney from Southie who became the first American NHL referee to officiate 1500 games on Tuesday night at TD Garden. He also became just the 11th ref in league history to work 1500 games.
But whoever was in charge of the game ops dropped the ball. Instead of waiting for a TV timeout to make the announcement so that the Boston crowd could have given the city kid a proper salute for a hell of an accomplishment, it was oddly squeezed in after an early whistle just 1:46 into the game so there was just a polite smattering of applause during a very brief break instead of giving the well-respected official his proper due. It doesn't take away from his accomplishment but he deserved better reaching the milestone in his hometown. They can make up for it when he refs his 2000th game. Way to go, Chicka!