Minutes after Boston’s overtime loss to the Blackhawks on Thursday night, Bruce Cassidy tried to pinpoint what exactly has held his club back over the past couple of weeks.
Sure, “held back” might be an odd way to phrase it. After all, Thursday’s defeat stood as Boston’s first loss since way back on Nov. 16 against the Capitals. Even with their win streak snapped at eight games, Boston had still managed to extend its stretch of points secured to 13 consecutive games off of its 4-3 OT final against Chicago.
But, considering the expectations and overall ceiling of Boston's roster, Cassidy didn’t have many positives to draw out of Thursday’s result — another matchup in which Boston needed to orchestrate a third-period rally to stave off its first regulation loss since Nov. 8.
“Complacency? I would say no,” Cassidy said Thursday of the factors ailing his club. “Lack of urgency some nights? I would say yes. We’re not pushing as hard as we need to to get to our level. Is that because of where we are, is that because of last year, is that because we feel like we’re a good enough team that we can flip a switch?
"Probably bits and pieces of all those things, I’m not going to deny it. Our job is to make sure we don’t get complacent. I don’t think we have been, to be honest with you. I think it would show in our record if we were. But, lack of urgency from period to period, absolutely.”
A lack of urgency is pretty much penciled in as a roadblock for every NHL club over the grueling stretch of an 82-game regular season. But so far this year, the many lulls that Boston has found itself in have yet to cost the team all that much, especially as far as points go.
A hefty portion of that has to do with the Bruins’ ability to ramp things up in crunch time, with a +20 goal differential in the third period allowing Boston to orchestrate last-minute rallies on a pretty consistent basis.
Well, at least against teams like Chicago and Minnesota.
Colorado was not going to be nearly as forgiving.
By the time the dust settled following Boston's 4-1 loss to the Avalanche on Saturday night, most in Boston's locker room tried to draw from the positives. All things considered, it was Boston's first regulation loss on home ice all year — with a record of 12-1-5 on home ice still standing as quite the accomplishment.
"I think we competed as hard as we could," Chris Wagner said. "It's not like we fell over or flopped or whatever. We had chances, too. They just didn't go in."
But for Cassidy, it was more of the same from his club when it came to the shortcomings that, for once, finally cost Boston some points in the standings.
"Lack of urgency," Cassidy said when asked what to equate the loss to. "We talked about it the other night, again tonight, some of that was definitely in our game early on. If we’re on our toes, I think we’re cleaner. I’m not going to say that we’re not going to execute from time to time, but it’s been an issue for us I think. Some of the unforced errors ... We win a faceoff to start a period, we ice it instead of making a play. Now we’re in our end and there’s just a lot of details that are working us against us now and we’ve just got to wake up, and start playing to our abilities in those situations. And live with the result.
"Doesn’t mean we’re going to win, but I think we’re leaving plays on the table because our lack of urgency or understanding that teams are coming after us. And they’re good teams. Now, we got away with it for a while here, good for us, right? It’s a results-oriented business. But against the better teams, I think at some point, they will close out games. Tonight, great example of that."
It doesn't take a hockey savant to know that only landing eight shots on goal through the first 40 minutes of play was not going to be a winning formula on Saturday night, but Boston's overall track record when it comes to failing to possess the puck and generate sustained scoring chances has been a concerning trend far before these last two losses to the Blackhawks and Avalanche.
Over their last nine games, the Bruins have fared pretty well when it comes to tilting the ice in its favor as far as shot attempts go during 5v5 play. Of those 27 periods of regulation play, Boston has ended up holding the edge in 5v5 shot attempts in 19 of them. Pretty solid.
The problem has largely been during those other eight periods of play. In a game with as much action and parity as NHL hockey, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise for teams to trade shot-share victories, period by period. But during those eight "off" periods, opponents have held an absurd 146-81 edge in 5v5 shot attempts against the Bruins.
Those are some nasty stretches in which the Bruins have been utterly dominated in their own zone, and most of them can be chalked up to poor starts — with seven of those "off" periods occurring in either the first or second stanzas of play.
Saturday was more of the same against Colorado, with Boston only managing nine 5v5 shot attempts in the opening frame, while the Avs generated 18 against Jaroslav Halak. Add in D-zone breakdowns in the middle period, a 3-1 deficit and Boston was cooked — unable to pull another rabbit of its hat by way of a third-period rally.
Comeback victories over teams like the Wild might be locks for the highlight reels at the end of the season, but Boston was not going to be able to keep on collecting points at a steady rate with so many ugly stretches.
"That's a losing game. ... We tend to be much better when we're behind," Brad Marchand said. "I think that's a bit of a wake-up call and we all have to play good to come back. We need that from the first shift of the first period. If you want to win, you want to be a good team and want to have a good chance in the playoffs, we have to be able to do that all game long."
At this point, the Bruins aren't panicking. Nor should they be, considering they still hold a 13-point cushion over the rest of the opposition in the Atlantic Division. And while any home loss is often a tough pill to swallow, Cassidy and his team can take some solace in that the flaw in Boston's game has been identified during this recent stretch.
And yet, such was the case on Thursday night, when Cassidy believed that he had pinpointed the factors leading to an OT loss to Chicago. Perhaps Boston will start to get the message after this latest misstep.
"It's a good game to realize that we're not gonna continue to win by getting down," Marchand added. "Unfortunately, it is good to lose every now and again and good to be able to right the ship again. Maybe this is that game."