Are the Boston Bruins really a Stanley Cup playoff team?
That existential query has to be the question coursing through everybody around the Original Six organization after watching the B’s drop their fifth game in a row in a sadly ineffectual fashion in a 4-0 loss to the Edmonton Oilers where they were completely outclassed by a better, more skilled hockey team on Tuesday night.
Things hit rock bottom in the third period as the Bruins circled the drain of a shutout loss on home ice where B’s fans were booing and catcalling the players, and a “Fire Sweeney” chant was audible in the balcony section calling for the remove of longtime B’s general manager Don Sweeney.
Inside the dressing room, the Bruins were frustrated as Charlie Coyle showed true leadership as the first guy into the room taking accountability and answering the tough questions after another loss.
"They wanted it more. I think it's pretty simple. I think it was a basic lack of urgency...a lot of things that are embarrassing to say right now,” said Coyle, who has one assist and is a minus-2 in during the five-game losing streak. “They just wanted it more. [Our identity] is something we need to work on, clearly. We know it’s in here, we’ve seen it and we’ve shown it. But this last little stretch we’ve swayed away from it for whatever reasons.”
The loss to the Oilers was about not being ready to play while getting outshot 14-4 in the first period, but it was also about questionable decisions that backfired like Trent Frederic chasing after Corey Perry for a fight in the second period. Frederic pounded Perry with a flurry of powerful overhand right punches, but then Connor McDavid scored on the ensuing power play after the B’s forward got an extra two minutes for roughing.
TRENT FREDERIC AND COREY PERRY WITH A TILT AT CENTER ICE AND FREDERIC ENDS IT WITH BLOODY KNUCKLES 🥊 pic.twitter.com/8kphlxLBWZ
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) January 8, 2025
But the biggest issue right now is that the Bruins had a complete lack of urgency while mired in a losing streak at the midpoint of the season. They did not look like a team prepared to play a gritty, defense-minded game as they head to Florida for a measuring stick road trip against the Panthers and Lightning, and a slim one-point lead over Tampa Bay in the standings with the Bolts holding a massive five games in hand.
“We just have to find some solutions right now,” said Joe Sacco. “They were certainly playing at a higher level than we were right from the drop of the puck. We got what we deserved based on the way that we played.”
Perhaps a hopeless defeat like Tuesday night’s to the Oilers will wake Bruins management up to the reality that this team does not have the right stuff to compete for a Cup this season. They’re still trending to be a playoff team in an Eastern Conference where there’s going to be a hockey team or two making it that merely survived the regular season. Clearly the Bruins are flawed based on the minus-24 goal differential and a poor overall won-loss record against teams currently in the Stanley Cup playoff structure.
The Black and Gold are 29th in the NHL scoring 2.58 goals per game, 31st in the league on the power play and no higher than 20th in the NHL in the defensive categories. They do nothing exceedingly well and have a brutal time scoring goals, particularly on a man advantage where David Pastrnak only has four power-play goals on the season.
It says a lot about the seasons that both Pastrnak and Justin Brazeau are having that they both tied for the team lead with four PP strikes on the year. It feels like the Bruins loosened up their defensive play a bit after struggling to score goals in road losses to both the Capitals and Rangers, and they have lost their way in the last three games before ending the stretch with a sad trombone of a loss to the Oilers.
“We don’t need to score a lot of goals to win games. What we’ve always tried to do is be really good defensively & we need to be comfortable in 1-0, 2-1 games,” said Brad Marchand, who has one assist and a minus-9 in the five game losing streak. “We’ve gotten away from that a bit. We're definitely forcing offense at the wrong areas at the wrong times and it’s backfiring.
“We also need to tighten up defensively and with that combination it’s been a recipe for disaster. So it’s on us to play a better brand of hockey that we were before [the Christmas holiday] break. It’s in here. We’ve shown that we can do it. We just need to get back to that.”
One thing the B’s probably are going to be real about it, however, is that they don’t look like a legit Cup contender and may need to consider dealing off tradeable assets at the trade deadline. It feels like Frederic has been whispered about as an asset that could be sold off by the B’s at the trade deadline, and that would be a prudent move to stock up on future assets with a piece it doesn’t feel like is going to be a fit as he reaches unrestricted free agency this summer.
It doesn’t make the Bruins a full scale seller in a season where it looks like they still could qualify in the East as a wild card entry, but it also puts into question just how much of a buyer they should be, as well, with a team had a terrible opening 20-game start, got their head coach fired and has shrugged off a number of bad hockey stretches that continue to plague them against the NHL’s best teams.
The Bruins still have some time to turn things around and make believers out of more people in an very forgiving Eastern Conference this year, but time is running out for a hockey club still grasping for answers at the midpoint of the regular season.