Thirty games into the 82-game slog, and some tough opponents lined up for the rest of the trip, the loss should be a wake-up call.
www.bostonglobe.com
WINNIPEG, Manitoba — Security rent-a-cops continued to wrap yellow tape around the Canada Life Centre crime scene Wednesday morning, hours after the Bruins were beaten up beyond recognition in their
8-1 aggravated assault at the hands of the Winnipeg Jets.
The beatdown was the worst of the season for the fragile, recovering puck luggers of interim coach Joe Sacco. It was framed by the eyesore of a third-period collapse in which the Black and Gold surrendered five goals to one of this season’s elite squads.
For those still keeping their “Centennial Season And Beyond” records up to date, it was only the 23rd time in their 100 years that the Bruins were plucked apart for five goals (or more) in a third period. It had not happened since Feb. 25, 2021, when Bruce Cassidy’s gang also got rolled for a fin by the Islanders in the final 20 minutes on Long Island.
In a century-plus of third periods, one of those comes around about once every five years. Suggestions for that game sheet: Frame it or flame it.
At least two of the goals in the third-period KO found No. 1 goaltender Jeremy Swayman several degrees below his game — somewhere between Senior Men’s Beer League and Tuesday Night YMCA recreational floor hockey.
In his prior 172 games (including playoffs) of NHL experience, Swayman never yielded as many eight goals, though the ex-Maine Black Bear was hardly the lone slaggard at the center of the all-night deluge. The Jets repeatedly strafed the Bruins’ backend, leaving for a bare naked Swayman, and leaving blue liners Mason Lohrei and Andrew Peeke each with ugly minus-3s next to their names, along with center Elias “If-I-Were-A-Rich-Man” Lindholm.
Written to a $54.25 million guarantee on July 1 as the presumptive No. 1 pivot, a void left open since the summer 2023 departures of Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci, Lindholm through 30 games has been a bust.
Lindholm, remember, was brought aboard to produce points, drive the top-six offense. His line ahead of Thursday night’s faceoff in Seattle stands at a paltry 3-10–13. If he’s driving, it’s from way deep in the back seat, third row of the rusted eight-seat family van (don’t make me stop this car).
The 30-year-old smooth-skating Swede has chipped in with but one goal and three assists in the 15 games since Nov. 7 and is now on track to finish with a career-low 36 points. Mercy. All for a cap hit of $7.75 million. Georgii Merkulov could have done that for $775,000.
Lindholm’s performance stands toe to toe with that of onetime, short-time Bruins pivot Alexei Zhamnov, who was 34 when hired on to be an added offensive mover and shaker by then-general manager Mike O’Connell in the summer of 2005. Zhamnov went a paltry 1-9–10 in 24 games (a 34-point pace) before O’Connell defenestrated the Russian pivot, who soon slipped out of town and never was seen again in a North American rink (you can look it up with minimal forensic work).
It was the same season that O’Connell also sent Joe Thornton to the San Jose badland, and yes, the same season that owner Jeremy Jacobs subsequently ordered O’Connell’s defenestration. Enter: Peter Chiarelli, Zdeno Chara and Marc Savard in the summer of 2006, and five years later what stands today as the franchise’s lone Stanley Cup title since 1972.
Right now, roughly 2½ months through the season, Lindholm stands as the kind of signing that can change the order of things in the Jacobs family’s Causeway Street front office. GM Don Sweeney and team president Cam Neely have played their hole card,
firing Jim Montgomery not even a month ago (Nov. 19), and putting the “interim” tag on Medford Joe. Sacco stands a respectable 7-3-0, albeit including Le Debacle Manitoba.
If Lindholm remains in his state of suspended vulcanized animation, and high-priced UFA defender Nikita Zadorov (six years/$30 million) keeps providing marginal impact (to be kind), then nothing catches the eye of owner Jeremy Jacobs like big money for next to no return.
Never has Jacobs, in his half-century of ownership,
paid so much ($84.25 million) for so little, which is exactly what many of his TD Garden faithful say to themselves as they line up at his concession stands.
Unlike his customers, however, Jacobs is not held captive to cost. He’s rarely made change in the front office. His progeny Charlie, the Executive Son, watches over things, which is to say he leads the wicked charmed life of monitoring profits and leaves all the hockey thingys to Sweeney and Neely.
Charlie and Jeremy only will activate on the hockey side if/when the cash cow buckles in what has been the rich, green field ever since that 2011 Cup win. For some fans in the stands, and NESN viewers, it’s getting old.
Up until the stop here, Sacco had proven proficient in getting the band back together, in the sense of at least adhering to team defense, deleting the staggering boo-boos that reached dunderheadedness levels in the late stage of Montgomery’s watch.
Normally that’s a tough spot for a new bench boss, but Sacco has been on staff since the bronzed Julien era, and right now he has an opportunity, be it whatever percentage, to turn interim employment into full-time status.
Easy to say from the press gallery, but an uncut Medford Joe schoolyard eruption in that moment — or somewhere on this five-game trip? — might have cleared what has a been a competitive fog surrounding this team since the 6-4 opening night loss in Sunrise, Fla. If that fog can be cleared.
Thirty games into the 82-game slog, and some tough opponents lined up for the rest of the trip, the biggest loss of the season (by goal margin) should be a wake-up call, to the roster, to the front office, and perhaps to the sleepy ownership suite.
