Bruins can't sustain recent pattern of late-game pushes

A lot went wrong for the Bruins in their home-and-home split with the Detroit Red Wings this weekend. 

Boston gave up shorthanded goals in back-to-back games as the power play has reached 2011 levels of ineffectiveness. Turnover troubles hampered the two units. On Saturday, it was David Krejci’s lax pass to David Pastrnak at the blue line before Andrew Copp’s tally. On Sunday, it was Pastrnak’s standstill turnover to Mo Seider for the young blue-liner's breakaway goal. 

The B’s are now 6-for-57 on the power play in their last 18 games (10.5 percent), which is worse than the infamous 11.4 percent power play Claude Julien trotted out in the 2011 Stanley Cup run. 

On the penalty kill, Dylan Larkin terrorized the Bruins in the middle of the ice, scoring a goal of his own in the high slot and creating two for Alex Chiasson on rebounds in addition to another of quality opportunities. Larkin generated five high-danger scoring chances on the power play in the two games, per Natural Stat Trick. 

Perhaps most of most concern, the Bruins fell flat out of the gates once again. It was the second half of a back-to-back with travel, but Detroit had to travel and play, too. 

The Red Wings out-attempted Boston 18-11 in Saturday’s first period, generating four high-danger chances to none and jumping out to a two-goal lead. However, the B’s managed to pull off the comeback. 

On Sunday, Detroit made the Bruins pay again early, taking a 1-0 lead out of the first. The Wings only had a 6-5 advantage in even-strength high-danger chances, but had the 4-1 marker on the scoreboard after two periods as Seider and Larkin gave Boston fits. On Adam Erne’s goal, Boston sat back in transition, giving Detroit too much space off the rush. Derek Forbort backed off Jonatan Berggren, affording him room to shoot while Erne found open space to be in position for the rebound. Turnover troubles and lack of execution with the puck abounded, highlighted by Pastrnak's giveaway to Seider.

“I think we were very lackluster with our effort in the first two periods,” Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said on the NESN broadcast.

He told reporters,  “I thought our second was very much like our first. We didn’t have the same compete level on 1-on-1 pucks. We weren’t first on pucks. I thought Detroit out-skated us and outworked us.”

Matt Grzelcyk’s goal stopped the bleeding in what turned out to be a runaway train of a second period that saw Detroit net three goals in just over a 10-minute span. 

“I thought they played really well [in the second],” Grzelcyk said. “They were all over us, and they were checking really well. I think we were just not willing to put pucks behind them, and we turned a few over that just gave them… even if they didn’t score, they still got a possession out of it. It makes it tough for the next guys to come out. We were all guilty of it. It’s just something we’ve got to correct.”

The weekend series was the latest in what has become a pattern of late. 

On Feb. 23 in Seattle, Boston gave up the game’s opening goal less than a minute in, giving up a 3-on-1 on Matty Beniers’ goal, but the B’s took a wild back-and-forth game. Then, the Bruins fell well behind the play against Calgary on Feb. 28, but Linus Ullmark stood on his head while Charlie McAvoy and Dmitry Orlov were clutch in the eventual win. Against the Rangers last Saturday, a shorthanded New York squad had Boston on its heels early, holding a 10-6 edge in shots. But a timely Charlie Coyle goal gave the Bruins an edge after the first before fatigue set in for the depleted Rags down the stretch as Boston pulled away. The Bruins also overcame a sluggish opening few minutes against the Oilers in Thursday's loss when Stuart Skinner let up a shaky goal to Brad Marchand on the first shot he faced. 

“We just got to be honest with ourselves. We’re not putting forth the effort that we expect from ourselves,” Montgomery said on the NESN broadcast. “This isn’t the first game here, the Calgary game was a little similar and we were tired that day, but there’s no excuse to be tired because Detroit had the same schedule as us.”

Give the Bruins credit. They found another gear late in each of the two games against Detroit to get back in it. At 5-on-5, Boston out-attempted Detroit, 45-24, and had a 10-4 edge in high-danger scoring chances in the final 40 minutes on Sunday, per Natural Stat Trick. The slow starts are still a problem, but it’s encouraging to see the comeback efforts, even if it’s not a sustainable recipe. 

“No surprise with this locker room. Ton of resilience,” Grzelcyk said. “It is a little frustrating. We’ve had a few tough starts in a row. Obviously a great effort in the third, but just a little too late there. We put ourselves a little behind the eight-ball. Really proud of the guys for not giving up. Back-to-back with travel, I’m sure a lot of teams could’ve caved in, but we’re never going to do that.”

Montgomery said, “It was nice to see us have a good push even down 4-1 and make it a game of it, but it was too little too late.”

Even in the midst of the third-period surge, Boston was still bleeding chances. Larkin almost put a stop to the rally before Pastrnak cut it to 4-3, but his breakaway bid narrowly missed.

The Bruins are still in good shape, overall, just now hitting double-digit losses in 65 games (50-10-5). These are the dog days of the regular season, after all, with the rush of the trade deadline behind the league and the playoffs looming. Whether or not it’s a March slump, or a concerning trend for the postseason remains to be seen. 

“It happens throughout the course of the year,” Grzelcyk said. “It’s obviously something we want to correct. It’s controllable, as long as we get to our game and just become more mentally prepared than anything.”

It’s just not a pace the Bruins can continue, falling back early before coming alive late, especially in the postseason when teams find more of a killer instinct.