Bruins lament poor effort against Red Wings in what stands as the first road bump in strong 2019-20 campaign

It wasn’t going to take out the sting of dropping two points against a divisional opponent, but the Bruins at least had a few positives to build off of following their 5-4 loss to Montreal on Tuesday. 

A regulation loss was inevitable — even if Boston had managed to go 26 days in between such a defeat — but the B’s at one point rallied back to take a third-period lead against the Habs, before a controversial offside challenge scrubbed Charlie Coyle’s go-ahead tally. 

Even in defeat, Bruce Cassidy and his staff could take some solace in their club’s never-say-die mantra, as well as a dominant showing from Zach Senyshyn and a new-look third line. 

In an 82-game campaign with its fair share of ups and downs, drawing from those forward-looking takeaways are a necessity once the dog days of winter set in. 

But Friday’s flight back from Detroit is going to be a bit tougher to stomach for Cassidy and crew. Rather than comb over the film from Boston’s 4-2 loss to the Red Wings in search of constructive clips, perhaps the best course of action for all involved would be to simply burn the tape and move on. 



For as much as Boston showcased its trademark pugnacious resolve on Tuesday up at the Bell Centre, a rested — albeit banged-up — B’s club didn’t offer much of anything three days later at Little Caesars Arena, failing to secure any points against a Red Wings team that entered the game with both the worst offense (2.06 goals scored per game) and defense (4.00 goals against per game) in the league.

Of course, this is NHL, and any club can win on any given night — Yadda yadda. For as much as Boston’s execution and jump was clearly a step behind, there’s little excuse for a club as loaded as the Bruins to fail to land multiple punches against a Detroit club with just one regulation win in its previous 13 games. 

“I think they showed up emotionally, physically,” Torey Krug said. “We were a little too late to respond. Once we did, we started playing better — just couldn’t get over the hump. Just think we fell behind too early.”

Yes, Boston had a couple of things working against it in this matchup. Namely, the B's forward corps was tossed into a blender before the puck was even dropped in "Hockeytown", with a late scratch of Brett Ritchie forcing Cassidy to slot in Sean Kuraly and Chris Wagner next to multiple pivots throughout the night.

"Caught us a little off guard, I'm not going to lie," Cassidy said of roster shuffle.

But even with most of the lineup out of sorts, Boston's constant up front — a top line of Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak — wielded more than enough firepower to pick apart a porous defense on its own. But less than two weeks after that trio combined for 13 total points in a beatdown of a lowly Rangers club, the Bergeron Line struggled to generate much of anything against Detroit.

If anything, the Red Wings managed to tilt the ice in its favor whenever 63-37-88 hopped over the boards, with Boston outscored (1-0), out-attempted (11-6) and out-chanced on hi-danger looks (3-0) when the Bergeron Line was out for 12:36 of 5v5 TOI.

A second line of David Krejci, Danton Heinen and Peter Cehlarik might have opened the scoring just 1:09 into the contest,  but Boston failed to show much life for the remainder of the first stanza — generating just 10 shot attempts and zero hi-danger looks during 5v5 play.

Even after Marchand dropped the gloves with Filip Hronek and Krug lit the lamp in the closing minutes of the second period, Boston failed to carry over any semblance of momentum into the final 20 minutes against a rebuilding Red Wings roster — with the B's only landing three 5v5 shots on goal against Jonathan Bernier in net in the third.

"Too little, too late. We have a guy drops the gloves that shouldn’t have to, trying to get a spark going, trying to get our bench moving," Krug said. "Not much of a response after that ... Not enough, just couldn't get over the hump, like I said."

The 2019-20 Bruins were never going to be a steam train rolling towards a 60-win season, even with their loaded roster. And as such, slumps like these are to be expected over the long course of the year. Still, back-to-back regulation losses have been far from the norm with this crew — with the B's only dealt that scenario seven times all of last season.

Healthy bodies and O-zone adjustments should get this club on track, but upon adding Boston's subpar effort against the Penguins earlier this week to its most recent losses  — it's rather evident that the Bruins are in the midst of their first real rut of the season. Time to turn the page, and quick.

“It's going to happen," Brad Marchand said. "What's our (record), 11-3-2 or something like that? I'm not worried, but obviously we're not happy with it. We'll regroup and get ready for the next one. 

“You try to stay even keel whether you're playing well or you're playing bad. You roll with the punches, get ready for  the next game and take what you can learn and move on. You can't get stuck on a game first week of November. We'll regroup and get ready for the next one.”