Many, many things that were predicted for the Boston Bruins this season did not end up coming true.
They will not end up in the NHL Draft lottery and they most definitely did not have a fire sale of veteran players for the second straight season at the NHL trade deadline. But the B’s were predicted to be a hockey team that was going to struggle to score goals and generate offense based on their patchwork lineup, and some of that has developed into a real-life hockey situation for the Black and Gold.
It certainly was the case in their two losses in Florida this week as they were able to only scrape for a single goal in each of the games against Florida and Tampa Bay – including a 3-1 loss to the Lightning at Amalie Arena on Saturday night – and has been fairly consistent in scoring a grand total of 10 goals in their six regulation losses since coming back from the Olympic break.
A big part of the slowdown against the Lightning on Saturday was a failure of the B’s power play to come through as they went 0-for-4 while vastly outnumbering the Bolts in special teams’ chances, and that has also very much become a post-Olympics phenomenon for a team that has dropped to the ninth in the NHL this season after being top-5 for the entire first half of the year.
“It’s very unfortunate because guys overall played a very solid game,” said Marco Sturm to NESN postgame, as he very clearly wants his team to continue tightening things up defensively ahead of the postseason. “We had a few chances [that we didn’t cash in on] even in the first period, but I thought our power play needed to step up. It didn’t give us a whole lot of Grade-A chances. But we were still good enough. It’s just that those little details really matter and those little details have been hurting us for two games now.”
Amazingly for these Bruins, the Blue Jackets, Senators, Red Wings and Islanders all lost on Saturday as well, so the B’s continue to hold a six-point cushion on their wild card playoff bid with just five games remaining in the regular season.
Even in a loss, their playoff chances increased to 96.9 percent based on everybody else’s futility as six teams -- seven, if you consider the Washington Capitals still in it as well -- essentially battle for three playoff spots, two wild card spots and the third playoff spot in the Metro Division.
Playoff chances after Saturday night’s Eastern games https://t.co/RbnckCLHNP pic.twitter.com/TPPaXkI8xK
— MoneyPuck.com (@MoneyPuckdotcom) April 5, 2026
Boston’s situation allowed them to take a measured approach after losing two straight games in regulation, but it makes a Sunday afternoon road matinee against the Philadelphia Flyers all the more important.
“I really liked our game. I thought we had a lot of positives for our group,” said Jeremy Swayman, who was beaten for a Darren Raddysh goal in the third period that could definitely be termed a ‘soft goal’ by his standards given the time and place it was surrendered. “Sometimes you don’t get the result, but this team shouldn’t be hanging their heads after [this game]. A lot of good things came away from it.”
Just like we all predicted before the season, DARREN RADDYSH HAS SET THE LIGHTNING'S SINGLE SEASON DEFENSEMAN GOAL RECORD AT 21!!!!! 🚨👏 pic.twitter.com/bSmDboDVzd
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) April 4, 2026
But things need to