Unlike most of the 17,000 in attendance that witnessed the Bruins getting snuffed out by the Flames last Sunday, Patrice Bergeron wasn’t hitting the panic button during his postgame address.
Sure, there’s the tired narrative that “Anyone can beat anyone in this league".
But give credit where it’s due to a stingy Calgary team looks like it’s built for the postseason — with that shutout victory at TD Garden standing as the Flames' seventh clean sheet over their first 19 games.
You’re not gonna win ‘em all — especially against the cream of the crop.
But most of the consternation spewing out following that weekend loss had little to do with the result of one game.
Yeah, “Anyone can beat anyone in this league” — but through the first two months of the 2021-22 season, the Bruins sure have found themselves on the losing side of many bouts against the NHL’s elite.
At the time, Bergeron didn’t fret about Boston letting another “statement” win against Calgary slip through its grasp.
“We've played 15 games this year,” Bergeron stated. “So of course the belief is there and we've said it many times —we've been in this position many times also. I think we know what it takes and the things that we have to work on and there's plenty of hockey left in front of us.
“That's the good news. But obviously, we have to rectify and we have to be better. We have to roll up our sleeves and go back to what we talked about — the identity and playing our game.”
After knocking out another tomato can in the Sabres on Wednesday night, the Bruins were handed a prime opportunity to practice what Bergeron preached on Friday afternoon with the surging Rangers coming to town.
A new opponent. A familiar tier of competition. And, once again, a disheartening result.
Despite some strong stretches of play (including the first 19:54 of action), the Bruins had little in terms of tangible results to take away from Friday’s 5-2 loss to the Rangers — with more defensive breakdowns and untimely tallies preventing Bruce Cassidy’s club from generating any semblance of traction in the standings.
“A game that I felt that was back and forth, for the most part,” Cassidy said. “We had the edge in the first, they did in the second. You got yourself a good hockey game. We kind of pissed it away, to be honest with ya — a chance to win."
Winning has been awfully daunting for the Bruins when matched up against the top clubs in the NHL. So far, they’ve yet to post a single regulation win against a team currently in the playoff picture — with their lone “measuring-stick” victory coming on Oct. 30 against the Panthers (which necessitated a shootout.)
Meanwhile, the seven opponents that have handed Boston a loss so far this year? The Panthers, Hurricanes, Oilers, Flames, Maple Leafs, Flyers and Rangers.
As of Saturday evening, six of those clubs rank in the top-eight of the league in terms of points percentage.
1. Panthers - .816%
2. Hurricanes - .806%
3. Oilers - .737%
4. Capitals- .725%
4. Rangers - .725%
4. Flames - .725%
7. Lightning - .694%
8. Maple Leafs - .690%
Meanwhile, if you want to run through the teams that the Bruins have defeated this season and where they rank as far as points percentage…
14. Devils - .588%
19. Flyers - .556%
20. Sharks - .553%
22. Stars - .529%
23. Red Wings - .500%
25. Sabres - .421%
30. Canadiens - .286%
31. Senators - .265%
So, yes, the Bruins are beating down the opponents that they should be taking care of — with a 6-3 loss to the Flyers back on Oct. 20 being perhaps the only real “blip” in terms of underperforming against a lesser foe.
But the failure to land any punches (and at the very least, recoup some points in head-to-head matchups) against teams near the top of the standings currently has Boston trapped in a narrative that it’s rarely found itself in over the last two decades.
Because right now, the Bruins are playing like a decidedly average club that — barring any changes — is setting itself up to be cannon fodder against a top-seeded opponent by the time the postseason rolls around.
Following Friday’s loss to the Blueshirts, Brad Marchand offered the same measured response as his captain when it came to fretting about the B’s poor track record against clubs that they will need to hurdle come the postseason.
"It's not a concern at all. It's early in the year, we have a lot of new faces in our group,” Marchand said. “It's a different year for us — a lot different than what we've had in a long time, where we have to build something again. Whereas before, we had such little turnover.
"Whoever came in just kind of fit into the group, but everything was already established. Now with the new guys that we have, it's hard to learn a new team and learn new systems and build that chemistry again, and that's what we have to do. The D have to build their chemistry with the goalie. All of the forwards have to build their chemistry with their line and again, the defensemen breaking out plays. So there's a lot of stuff we need to work on. I don't think we expected to come in and dominate from the start of the year.
“We know it would be a process to get our game to where it needs to be, but we're not concerned about Game 17 or 18. We want to be playing our best down the stretch and that's what we're going to go for.”
Some of Marchand’s comments do hold some validity.
It’s rarely about how you start, but how you finish — as a Western Conference club proved to the B’s back in the summer of 2019. And with all of the moving pieces in place on this B’s roster, it’s to be expected for this team to have some growing pains.
Still, even with an overhauled roster, it’s hard to harp on silver linings for a team that — last I looked — still boasted one of the top lines in hockey, a top-3 defenseman and plenty of solid pieces … and has gone 1-6-0 against teams currently in the playoff picture.
“It's like building a house,” Marchand said. “You got to fill in the foundation and that's what we're gonna continue to work on and go from there."
Perhaps before pouring in that concrete, the Bruins should take a long look at how steady the ground is around them. Because as of right now, the Bruins aren’t building toward much beyond a frustrating first-round exit.
