Gauging the Panic-Meter: Is Carolina’s beatdown of Bruins a one-off, or an ominous sign for Boston’s defense?

Oh hockey - you wonderful, exhilarating, absolutely frustrating exercise. 

Every NHL team navigates through its fair share of peaks and valleys over the span of an 82-game season — and the 2021-22 Bruins are no different.

In the span of just a couple weeks, discourse surrounding the inevitably of a rebuild can be muted thanks to a five-game winning streak against quality opponents. One bad loss later, and all those good tidings can dissipate. 

Given the highs and lows that are guaranteed throughout an NHL campaign, we’ll occasionally delve into the state of the Bruins with this new regular feature: Gauging the Panic-Meter — where we’ll assess the fortunes of the B’s in wake of a particularly troubling outing or setback. 

And what better game to dissect to open the series than Boston’s 7-1 thrashing at the hands of the Hurricanes on Tuesday night.

Let’s dive in.

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The Bruins followed a familiar script in wake of Tuesday’s beatdown on the TD Garden ice.

Rather than delve into structural failings, bemoan concerning trends that had sprouted up in their game or find other contributing factors that led to Carolina’s blowout win — the B’s instead opted to keep it brief as they fielded questions via Zoom just minutes after the Garden clock ticked down to zero.

"Yeah, burn the tape on that one," Patrice Bergeron said. "That was not our team. We've got to be better. I think the last few weeks we've all seen how good we can be, the steps forward we have taken.  

“Obviously, learn and rectify the things we've got to be better at. But to me, it was just flat, just no execution. It's gotta be better for sure. It's one of those you just burn and you try and move on."

Granted, in a sport about as stable as a Green Line schedule, perhaps the proper course to take after submitting such a stinker is to pull out the Neuralyzer and wipe the slate clean immediately.

After all, these kinds of letdowns do happen.

The Capitals — who the Bruins welcome to the Garden on Thursday — are solidifying their spot as a top-three team in the Metro Division. And they were blasted by the B’s, 7-3, in their last meeting on Jan. 10 down in D.C.

And Carolina, who have arguably staked their claim as the most balanced club in the league all season long, submitted an embarrassing 6-0 home loss to the rebuilding Columbus Blue Jackets less than a week ago. 

Of course, just chalking this loss up to the good ol’ “s--- happens” mantra wouldn’t make for a very interesting column. 

Yes, it wouldn’t surprise me all that much if the Bruins bounce back with a statement win over the Caps once again — continuing their extended stretch of strong play since the start of 2022. 

And yes, Tuesday’s debacle might have been just one game.

But when it comes to taking the longer view of Boston’s road ahead — and perhaps most importantly, the current constitution of this roster — some doubts that have been festering underneath Boston’s recent resurgence are worth examining.

If you’ve been following all season long, I’ve been pretty consistent in terms of harping on where the Bruins’ priorities should lie when it comes to any potential deadline acquisitions. 

Even though Erik Haula has served as a pleasant surprise as a pivot with pace that seems to align with both David Pastrnak and Taylor Hall’s strengths — entering the postseason gauntlet with him in place at 2C doesn’t seem like the best recipe for success when it comes to roster construction.

Be it prized targets like Tomas Hertl, J.T. Miller or Claude Giroux — or even a potential cap casualty such as William Karlsson out in Vegas, it sure seems like the B’s best bet at giving themselves a shot in the arm ahead of the postseason is to add a true top-six center.

At least that was my thinking for most of the past three months. Now, such sentiment is admittedly getting awfully muddled. 

If one were to focus on just the underlying metrics regarding Boston’s D corps, there likely wouldn’t be much cause for alarm — with the Bruins far and away the top team in the league as far as expected goals against are concerned (1.94).

And with both Linus Ullmark continuing to gain traction and Tuukka Rask back in the fold, one would think that a stronger tandem in net would allow a B’s defense with a knack for limiting high-danger scoring chances to only continue to improve.

Of course, the Bruins weren’t harping on the silver linings present in expected goals or other metrics after a night like Tuesday — in which Rask was banished to the bench after relinquishing five goals on just 12 Canes shots in the opening period of play. 

And even though the easiest exercise would be to assess all the blame to Boston’s final line of defense in Rask, that was far from the case on Tuesday.

Was Rask sharp? Nope. Rusty? Certainly. But even prime Hasek would have been dented early and often given the defensive failings playing out in front of him.  

“We didn't do a very good job in front of him,” Cassidy said of Rask. “I think the goal that we got beat one on one — again, they got to the interior ice. I think that's the save you want.

“I don't think we did anything in front of Tuukka to help him out tonight. Would have been one of those nights we would have needed an unbelievable effort from him to get any points at all, and that's an unfair ask.” 

On a night in which the Bruins relinquished 11 scoring chances in just 16:35 of 5v5 play (per Natural Stat Trick) in the opening period, just about every B’s blueliner found themselves culpable in Carolina’s onslaught.

Of course, give Carolina credit — as the Canes’ executed Rod Brind'Amour's gameplan to a T by way of a relentless forecheck that halted Boston’s breakouts and forced puck carriers into hasty and ill-advised decision making.

“We had nothing. They were clearly better than us in every area," Cassidy said. "This is less about the opponent, more about where we're at. Obviously, they forecheck hard, and some of the things they do well, some of the top teams do well - hard on pucks, get on top of you, get to the front of the net.

"We weren't nearly good enough, and we wouldn't have been good enough against the worst team in the league tonight. We weren't competitive, and we paid the price."

 So, where do we begin with Boston’s defensive lapses? .... Have a libation nearby?

Goal 1: Teuvo Teravainen - 1st period (3:44)

Not one of Derek Forbort’s best sequences here.

A poor attempt from the stay-at-home defenseman to halt Seth Jarvis in the neutral zone backfires quickly — leading to a brief odd-man rush for the Canes.

Tony DeAngelo’s shot doesn’t find twine, but Carolina quickly recovers the puck on the forecheck — with Teravainen eluding Charlie Coyle and sending it back out to Jaccob Slavin.

Seconds later, Slavin sends a crisp cross-slot feed back over to Teravainen — who one-times it past Forbort and Rask and into the Bruins’ net. Not great.

Goal 2: Jesperi Kotkaniemi - 1st period (6:03)

What seemed like a harmless sequence quickly devolved into disaster for the Bruins — and it all started, once again, due to Carolina converting on the forecheck.

While Rask knocked aside Kotkaniemi’s initial low-danger shot with his blocker, the Hurricanes forward quickly recovered the puck against Charlie McAvoy behind the B’s net. 

Andrei Svechnikov’s subsequent shot led to an ugly rebound from Rask, but the B’s netminder was also completely left on an island — with both McAvoy and Matt Grzelcyk further up in the slot and not accounting for Kotkaniemi, who easily tucked the second-chance look home to double Carolina’s lead.

Again, ugly stuff all around.

Goal 3: Jesperi Kotkaniemi (2) - 1st period (11:26)

This one had Cassidy stewing postgame, and for good reason.

Just 13 seconds after Bergeron got Boston back into the contest with a power-play tally, the Hurricanes bounced right back and built a two-goal lead once more — with Kotkaniemi deflecting a shot past Rask for his second tally of the period. 

This time, Carolina’s forechecking pressure caused a second pairing of Brandon Carlo and Urho Vaakanainen to wilt — with Jordan Martinook creating havoc down low and leading to a loose puck that was corralled by Derek Stepan.

Stepan instinctually goes low-to-high to Slavin, who uncorks a shot into traffic in search of a tip or rebound. He’d get it from Kotkaniemi, who manhandled Vaakanainen down low and managed to get his stick on the flying biscuit.

3-1 Carolina.

A complete back-breaker — especially with Boston’s fourth line and usual stalwarts like Carlo out there on the ice. 

“We put guys on the ice that are defensive-minded players. That was a big letdown for us,” Cassidy said. “The guys that are used to being relied on to keep the puck out of the net, be good solid defensive players, be kind of the bottom of the lineup and some of the D that are relied on. They just didn’t get it done tonight.”

Goal 4: Seth Jarvis - 1st period (16:01) 

Cassidy noted that this goal should have been the one that Rask should have stopped. But again, it was the end result of a sequence in which a rookie in Jarvis steamrolled past Connor Clifton like Shawn Kemp driving into the paint against an AAU player.

Be it Vaakanainen’s pass into no man’s land on a dreadful breakout attempt, Clifton hesitating and getting caught flat-footed by Jarvis or Rask unable to bail out a couple of gaffes from Boston’s youngest defensemen — and this is when the game quickly turned into a laugher. 

Goal 5: Derek Stepan - 1st period (16:57)

To further twist the knife, Stepan (who was a healthy scratch in Carolina’s last game) added his second point of the period with his fifth goal of the season to close out the first. 

To the surprise of just about no one, Carolina’s forechecking pressure once again led the charge — with Stepan and Martinook pressuring a Forbort-Clifton pairing and causing a turnover in the D zone. 

Puck recovery. An uncovered slot with Stepan sliding between Clifton and Anton Blidh. And *bang* 5-1 game. 

We could also go into Carolina’s two third-period goals, but the damage was already done by the time the final seconds mercifully ticked off the clock to close out the opening frame. 

At a quick glance, Tuesday’s disaster sure seemed like it was magnified by Boston’s youth (Vaakanainen) and depth pieces (Clifton) getting exposed further down the lineup — but let’s be frank, just about every player on Boston’s blue line had a rough night at the office.

And even though Mike Reilly wasn’t available, it’s not like he’s exactly the shutdown piece on this B’s roster.

So what do the Bruins need? A top-pairing stalwart? A third-pairing bruiser?

It might come down to cost — and it sure seems like the latter is the more realistic option. 

For as much as Jakob Chychrun stands as the ideal target for Boston when it comes to an elite, top-four D with years of control — the B’s may not have the assets to even make a competitive offer for the Arizona skater.

At least, not if Jeff Marek’s report that the ‘Yotes would want a package from the Panthers consisting of names like Spencer Knight, Anton Lundell and a first-round pick is accurate. 

Aside from Chychrun, there aren’t exactly that many no-brainer, top-four candidates available for deals — at least not now. Ben Chiarot sure seems like he’s not going to be worth the asking price, while John Klingberg feels like a bad fit.

Much like how the Lightning strengthened their D corps last season by adding a stalwart like David Savard further down the depth chart, perhaps that’s the apt course for Boston to take — but even that won’t come cheap, considering the Bolts had to cough up a first-round pick for a rental in Savard.

Yes, there’s only so much doom and gloom that should be doled out following a regular-season loss like this. But there is also some validity to those concerns about the makeup of this D corps, especially when the time continues to engage in fast-paced, physical hockey come the postseason.  

The Panic-meter? I’m not sweating over Boston’s fortunes, at least not in the short term. But a night like Tuesday is the kind of showing that does create a pit in your stomach when we have to look further down the road.

Because that Carolina forecheck isn’t going away. Such a strategy worked out awfully well for the Islanders last spring, and could once again lead to more misfortune for the B’s if they don’t tighten things up defensively (or add a piece) in the months ahead.