A third-period rally might have allowed the Bruins to at least escape with a point on Sunday night, but there were few positives thrown around in the locker room after Boston’s 3-2 shootout loss to the Flyers — the club’s third loss in a row.
“Way too many sloppy plays and turning back and not moving forward,” Patrice Bergeron said. “When you do that, everyone is kind of guessing on the ice and no one is really on the same page and they take it to you."
During a 10-period stretch that started on Monday against the Penguins and carried over into the first two stanzas of Sunday’s showdown, the Bruins have labored in all areas of the ice, with opponents tallying 15 goals during that four-game duration.
But D-zone lapses are far from the only concerning trend that Bruce Cassidy and his staff have taken note of during this recent skid.
Poor rush coverage is putting Boston behind the 8-ball
Cassidy has harped on Boston’s coverage of opposing rushes — or rather, the lack thereof — as a shortcoming of this club for most of the first six weeks of the regular season.
Many factors often contribute to odd-man counters down the ice and a D corps’ faults when it comes to keeping opposing skaters in front of it. But for Cassidy, the failure to adhere to the finer details of the game has often drawn the most consternation out of him during said sequences.
Brett Ritchie skating off for a line change in the midst of a Montreal rush on Tuesday — which ended with a tally from Paul Byron — generated plenty of ire from Cassidy following that 5-4 defeat, and the B’s bench boss was once again less than thrilled on Sunday when Charlie McAvoy jumped up into the play and gathered a puck behind the Flyers’ net in the first.
"Poor. That’s about it," Cassidy said. "To sum it up, it was poor."
For a veteran club looking to put a miserable regulation loss to a woeful Red Wings team in the rearview mirror, Sunday's showing — especially in the opening 30 minutes of play — was startling. It wasn't just that the Flyers built themselves a 2-0 lead by the time both clubs returned to their locker rooms for the first intermission. Rather, it was more about the lack of response from Boston upon falling into an early hole, with the B's only landing three shots on goal during a whopping 18:00 of 5v5 TOI in the first period.
Again, multiple factors contributed to that wretched start, but something's going to have to give sooner rather than later with the club — especially with matchups against the Maple Leafs and Capitals scheduled for later this week. If Boston is once again sipping decaf when the puck drops then? It's going to get ugly.
"At the end of the day, we need to be on time," Cassidy said. "That’s when we’re at our best. I think they understand that, and I think every team would like that, so we’ll keep hammering away on that. I don’t know if it’s an energy issue right now because we talked about ... sometime we thought it was the residual effect of last year. Maybe it’s kicking in earlier than we thought; I don’t know. We’ll talk to the players about that and see where it leads."