Bruins' struggles with closing out wins continues to be an alarming — and inexcusable — trend this year

The current outlook of the NHL standings likely shouldn’t incite much panic from Bruins fans — at least at a quick glance. 

Now 50 games into the 2019-20 season, the Bruins are still entrenched in first place in the Atlantic Division — a spot they’ve held steady in for a majority of this campaign.

Even with some secondary-scoring issues, the Bruins are still piling on points at a consistent rate. Their 68 points are tied with the St. Louis Blues for second overall among NHL clubs, trailing only the Capitals (71 points).

But Boston’s current standing is far from a lock, especially with a surging Lightning team (12-2-0 in last 14 games) clawing its way out of the cellar of the Atlantic.

With points at a premium down the stretch, perhaps we'll look back at Sunday’s disheartening 4-3 loss to the Penguins as a regular-season bout that held much more weight than just another tuneup in the middle of January.

Entering Sunday’s matinee matchup at PPG Paints Arena, the Bruins had posted an impressive record of 200-1-6 when leading by at least three goals since the start of the 2010-11 season.

That lone loss was way back on April 4, 2011 against the Rangers — a game in which a 3-0 Bruins lead evaporated en route to a 5-3 victory for the Blueshirts.

But on Sunday, another 3-0 cushion for the Bruins in the opening period of play wasn’t enough to secure at least one point in the standings.

For just the second time in the past decade, Boston left the rink empty-handed despite building itself a convincing lead — as Pittsburgh tallied four unanswered goals over the final 43 minutes of play to stun the B’s.

Fair to say, it’s the low point in what has primarily been another successful season for Bruce Cassidy’s crew. 

But much to the Bruins’ chagrin, this loss has plenty of company in 2019-20.



Yes, Boston might now be 200-2-6 since the 2010-11 season when holding a three-goal lead, but THREE of those losses have come within the last nine weeks — including two in just six days.

After holding a 4-0 lead against the Panthers at home back on Nov. 12, the Bruins allowed the Panthers to claw back into the contest — with Boston eventually falling, 5-4, in the shootout. 

On Monday, the Bruins landed plenty of punches against Carter Hart and the Flyers, holding on to a 5-2 lead in the second period. But Philly countered off of three unanswered goals in the span of 19:14 — forcing overtime before eventually beating Boston in the shootout, 6-5. 

The Penguins did not allow Boston to at least escape with a loser’s point on Sunday, however. Much like Monday’s defeat against the Flyers, poor decision making from the B’s blue line made things easy on a rejuvenated Penguins team. 

While a tally from Teddy Blueger in the second period was generated off of an insane set-up from Sidney Crosby, the other three tallies had Cassidy at a loss. 

Along with a shorthanded goal from Jack Johnson that stood as the equalizer just 1:41 into the first, a pair of the Penguins tallies were generated off of miscues from Bruins’ defensemen behind Boston’s net.

John Moore failing to win a puck battle against Crosby in the first period had a predictable outcome. After retrieving the biscuit, the playmaking center only needed a split-second to feed Dominik Simon in front to put Pittsburgh on the board at 16:34 in the first. 

After that tally, Moore only logged a little over six minutes of ice time and 10 total shifts for the rest of the afternoon. 

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Some indecision from Charlie McAvoy gave Evgeni Malkin all the time he needed to orchestrate Pittsburgh’s go-ahead goal in the third. Rather than feed the puck over to D partner Zdeno Chara behind the B’s net, McAvoy opted to hold on to the puck, allowing the 6-foot-3 Malkin to slam into him and retrieve the puck. Just seconds later, Malkin fed Bryan Rust in the slot to make it a 4-3 game. 

“We saw some poor defending, poor goaltending I think in Philly,” Cassidy said of the usual issues that arise during these collapses. “Tonight, I think it was more of the same, to be honest with you. Not so much on the goalie, they were good goals. But we get beat off the wall on the first one, the last one — I can't tell you what happened, to be honest. It's a rimmed puck that the goalie needs to get out and stop and the D needs to communicate.

“You need to make a play, you can't turn the puck over there. There was just too much of that going on. Too much of guys that have offensive ability have to start playing to their strength a little bit more on our back end or we've got to seriously consider what type of D corps do we want? We're supposed to be mobile, we're supposed to be able to move pucks, break pucks out, add to our offense  and right now that's a challenge for us."

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Yes, Sunday might be the worst of a concerning trend of collapses this season, but it’s been far more than just the three games mentioned above. 

This is actually the second time this season that Boston has coughed up a three-goal lead to the Penguins — the only difference is that the Bruins rallied back to post a 6-4 win during that Nov. 4 matchup at TD Garden.

Boston has also lost a pair of games when they’ve held a two-goal lead — a regulation loss to the Avalanche way back on Oct. 10, and an eventual shootout loss to the cellar-dwelling Devils back on Dec. 31. 

These aren’t just unfortunate blips on the radar — these have been a recurring issue for the Bruins all season long. And it’s already cost them plenty of valuable points that were well within their grasp. 

Only time will tell if these inexcusable results will eventually be reflected in the standings — because Tampa Bay doesn't seem to be slowing down any time soon.

“These are things that are correctable mistakes, but the goals we're giving up against this good team, like tonight, they're kind of — what is it? Lack of focus? Do we lose our urgency?  Because they're gifts, a little bit of gifts,” Cassidy said. “You can get outplayed, you will, by good teams in stretches, but they were gifts tonight."