The Boston Bruins got off to a very impressive 3-0-0 start because they enjoyed defensive buy-in from everybody across the lineup, and because the comfort level was there to win tight one-goal games based on defensive structure and discipline.
A lot of that was not on display on Thursday night in Vegas. The result was a 6-5 loss for the Bruins at T-Mobile Arena that was probably a lot closer to the game that the Golden Knights wanted to play than it was to what Marco Sturm was looking for to kick off the West Coast trip.
“Easy breakdowns…just easy mistakes. I would say easy mistakes on the reads too. And not just from our young guys, from our top guys too. It’s hard. When you are going to chase that game, it’s hard to come back,” said the B’s bench boss.
“We knew it was going to be tough here. But we just have to be smart. That’s not our standard. We just need to be way better. We need to buy in on our defensive effort and that wasn’t the case today.”
It’s difficult to judge some of what has happened the last couple of games given that the quality of opponents has definitely stepped up in the last few games with the Lightning and the Golden Knights, but it’s also giving Sturm and his coaching staff some of the ammunition they need on video to make their points.
“For me it’s a mindset going in. Do you want to play 1-0 game or do you want to play that [wide] open game? We’ve done it now two or three games in a row and we got lucky once because of our goaltending,” said Sturm. “That’s not us…that’s not us. I’m almost glad sometimes when it happens because it shows you that we have work to do. I don’t want to play that game.
“I’m a defensive mindset coach I would say and it starts from there. Offense will come from there, but you don’t have to cheat the game. I know that for sure.”
Certainly, there were defensive miscues that could be looked at and broken down. A Jordan Harris pinch left Viktor Arvidsson hanging out to try attempting to cover for him defensively and predictably Pavel Dorofeyev took advantage by skating right by him and sniping a score past Jeremy Swayman in the second period.
And William Karlsson had an easy path to the net for Vegas’ insurance goal in the third period with Henri Jokiharju and Harris out there on the penalty kill. It was that exact moment where it felt like the absence of an injured Hampus Lindholm was really beginning to negatively impact a Bruins team that got to a really encouraging start defensively this season.
A Casey Mittelstadt turnover on a late second-period power play turned into a backbreaking shorthanded goal that left Boston trailing by two goals headed into the second intermission. But the Mittelstadt mistakes underscored a poor effort from Boston’s top two lines where their top trio was held off the scoreboard, and the second line was a liability at both ends with Mittelstadt, Arvidsson and Pavel Zacha all struggling big time.
“A lot of mistakes today. We had a lot of breakdowns that ended up in our net and against Vegas that can’t happen,” said Pastrnak, who watched the bottom-6 forwards like Tanner Jeannot, Mikey Eyssimont and Mark Kastelic power Boston's offense in the loss. “[Jeremy Swayman] was standing on his head. We left him standing on his head for the whole game and we have to be better as a team. We showed fight back and that’s pretty much the only positive from the game.
“These games are going to happen, but we need to make sure that we are on the better side of it. Obviously, you don’t want to give up six goals because it’s hard to win in this league [when you do.] If the top-6 had a good game then we had a chance to win it. We got the scoring. Unfortunate, we have to own that. We didn’t get on the score sheet. We’re getting a lot of ice time and we have to create things five-on-five.”
Strange as it is to say in a game where a team allowed six goals, but Swayman was actually very solid with a 31-save effort where he kept the Bruins in the game at points where it could have gotten much worse. Vegas snapped Boston’s perfect penalty kill unit to start the season and dinged them up for a couple of power play goals while showcasing a Golden Knights power play that looked close to unstoppable with Jack Eichel, Mitch Marner, Mark Stone, Tomas Hertl and Dorofeyev out there moving the puck around.
“They’re a good rush team. They’re a good offensive team. We just didn’t defend well enough,” said Charlie McAvoy. “You can’t give up six goals and that was the problem. It’s not how we’re going to win.
“We’re trying to understand our system and what is going to allow us to have success, and to get better at it. We’re understanding it, we just didn’t do enough of it tonight.”
The good news is that the Bruins seem to very clearly understand that Thursday’s losing effort in Vegas was well below their standard, and not all that close to the way they want to play on a nightly basis. The challenge now will be to see how long it will take for the coaching staff to get the players back on course with the defensive structure and mindset that they are looking for out of the Black and Gold players. Things don’t get much easier with games this weekend against a loaded Colorado team and a young, hungry Utah group as the B’s have just a couple more games on their quick West Coast jaunt.