Post-Game Talk: GAME 31 - Sleeping in Seattle - Kraken 5 BRUINS 1

[Fenway]

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Time On Ice: BOS

Time On Ice: SEA

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SEATTLE — The long-and-winding road delivered the Bruins to another dead end Thursday night at Climate Pledge Arena.

Paced by a pair of Oliver Bjorkstrand goals, and the steady work of Philipp Grubauer (33 saves) in net, the Kraken dismissed the Bruins, 5-1, leaving the Black-Gold 0-for-2 on their five-game road trip.
That’s 0-for-2 with only two goals scored.

The Bruins will be in Vancouver Saturday night for stop No. 3 on their five-game Western swing.
The Kraken took an early 2-0 lead, Bjorkstrand connecting on a power-play goal only 24 seconds into play, followed by Jaden Schwartz at even strength.


With only 5:14 off the clock, the Bruins were faced with a two-goal uphill climb that they couldn’t erase.
After scoring only once in the road trip opener Tuesday night (an 8-1 shellacking in Winnipeg) the Bruins scored the lone goal in the second period when Brad Marchand scored on a penalty shot at the 10:28 mark.

Marchand was awarded the free chance when Brandon Montour, the one-time UMass-Amherst backliner, was charged with covering the puck in the crease as Marchand attempted to jam the puck over the goal line at the left post.

On his freebie, Marchand barreled in alone, faked a forehand shot in the low slot, and then slid a sleight-of-hand backhander through goalie Grubaeur’s five-hole. It was Marchand’s seventh career penalty-shot goal, tying him with Pavel Bure, the Russian Rocket, for the league’s all-time lead. The L’il Ball o’Hate previously was tied at No. 2 with Mario Lemieux.

The Kraken, currently out of the playoff mix in the West, put it out of reach in the third on goals by Vince Dunn and Bjorkstrand’s second of the night, boosting the lead to 4-1. Jared McCann closed out the scoring with an empty-netter with 1:54 to go.

Joonas Korpisalo made 16 saves on 20 shots in the Bruins' net.
The Bruins lost the services of Elias Lindholm midway through the second period. The underperforming center (31 games: 3-10–13) who signed a $54.25 million deal in July as an unrestricted free agent, sustained an upper-body injury.

If Lindholm can’t suit up Saturday night against the Canucks, the Bruins on Friday might consider calling up Matty Poitras from AHL Providence. Assigned to there a month ago, Poitras has wielded a hot stick the last two weeks, and the Bruins now are desperate for offensive pop.

The Bruins, who began the trip after winning a season-high four straight games, now stand 7-4-0 since Joe Sacco took over as interim coach upon the dismissal of Jim Montgomery.

The loss left the Bruins with a 6-7-1 record on the road this season.

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[Dennis Bonvie]

Pasta just sucks right now.

Joining the Pasta haters club?

Welcome!

That was the password.

 

[Fingertools]

Talk is cheap.

If you recall, there was a time he requested a trade.

In a different season

 

[SonnyBoy]

Hopefully Bussi plays next game and the guys play in front of him

Korpi wasn't bad. Sway would've let probably 12 goals.

Might be the worst captain in Bruins history.

He's the only one who keep trying night after night. And he keep scoring too, not like 88 who get all scoring chances and still can't score. Best chances and still only Elias has worse sht% of forwards than 88. And it wasn't captain who took brainfart penalty at start of the game. 88's laziness keep him swinging like medieval knight every game.

I hate to say it but its time to be sellers. Trade Freddy Marchy Carlo and who ever else. Start rebuild now.

Start with Pasta, Sway and E.Lindholm. That is $27.25M for rebuilding. Start from there. You don't wanna keep $8.25M AHL goalie or lazy $11.25M wet powder 7.9% shooter.

 

[KillerMillerTime]

I don't think I'm alone in saying that I'm getting tired of Brick saying things like "they had a lot of offensive zone time there" and making a ton of excuses. He seemed so objective when they were a winning team, or maybe it was Jack's influence? In any event it's getting pretty repetitively lame.

Maybe this team is trying to finally give the Sabres a chance to make the playoffs? This is the worst they've been in a really long time. ALL of Sweeney's signings are below expectation or just plain awful. What a waste of cap space.

I thought they could DNQ only if there were LTI to one of the top 4F or #73. Never thought 88, 73, and 1 would all so dramatically underperform at the same time, though not shocked about #73, most overrated Dman in the NHL. I advocated trading him
last year and this year. My #73 for Kreider, Schneider and '25 NYR #1 would be a steal.
Add underperformance of 13, 18 (showing life at least), 25, 11 & 39 and its amazing they sit in a PO spot. However that isn't going to last this year. One of Pitt, Ottawa, Flyers, Sabes, Wings or NYI are going to get their act together enough to pass Boston.

 

[Fingertools]

Talk is cheap.

If you recall, there was a time he requested a trade.

and rescinded it

 

[Dr Hook]

Joining the Pasta haters club?

Welcome!

That was the password.

LOL well I won't go so far as to say hater yet, but all the bad shit that you take as part of the Pasta experience was always offset by the world-class offensive magic. This season he's kept all the bad stuff and the magic is gone.

 

[Dennis Bonvie]

Honestly, I thought the Bruins outplayed Seattle.This is such a weird team. I mean, there was effort. We outshot them 34-21, we had 65 shot attempts (almost double theirs). That doesn't happen without hard work.When we play good teams the lack of talent (or probably a better description would be to say the lack of production) really shows. Pasta is talented but not productive this year. Zacha, Lindholm, McAvoy are all talented too. At least as talented as anyone on Seattle.
To compound our lack of finish, we were sloppy mentally (early penalty by an A), and we're getting leaky defensively again. We're back to giving up the slot. We're making mental mistakes like bad reads off face offs and bad passes instead of clears on the PK.

There are just too many guys not pulling their weight on both sides of the puck. Guys who should score aren't scoring. Guys who should be rocks defensively aren't rocks. Guys who should be leaders and set the example, are taking 4 minute majors in the offensive zone 30 seconds into a must-win game.

With that loss (and the Flyers win) we are outside the playoff picture again.

Nice post.

But what did you really mean by the bolded?

 

[ON3M4N]

I think it's pretty obvious that goaltending is not this team's biggest issue.

However; I also think it's very reasonable to expect your $8.5mil/yr goalie to steal some games and keep some games close when maybe they shouldn't be.

Reasonable sure, but right now he's be asked to rob a bank with squirt gun. This team has allowed the 4th most high danger goals. I don't care what goalie you have in the net. It could be the greatest goalie to ever go between the pipes. When you're team is giving guys uncontested high danger opportunities, you can't expect the goalie to bail you out 9 times out of 10.

The Bruins offense is scoring 2.4 goals per game. You basically need Swayman (and Korpi) to be near perfect to give this team a chance. Worst PP in the NHL, with one of the 10 worst PK in the NHL and we're hoping our goalies can give up 1 goal a game. Oh and lets not forget that Leach was brought back to help get more offense out of this defensive group. Seems maybe that's impacted their play in their own zone and now our goalies are getting hung out to dry.

If this team was scoring 3-4 goals a game and we're losing, then ya I need the goalies to steal some games for us and get their shit together. In their last 15 games, this team has been held to 1 goal or less 40% of the time. They've been held to 2 goals or less 60% of the time.

 

[KillerMillerTime]

Water seeking its level. No need to overthink this.

They beat up on garbage after the coaching change.

Now we’re right back where we were a few weeks ago.

Welcome to the NML (National Mediocrity League). Its what is keeping Boston in a PO spot but one team is going to move past Boston this year.

 

[TCB]

Reasonable sure, but right now he's be asked to rob a bank with squirt gun. This team has allowed the 4th most high danger goals. I don't care what goalie you have in the net. It could be the greatest goalie to ever go between the pipes. When you're team is giving guys uncontested high danger opportunities, you can't expect the goalie to bail you out 9 times out of 10.

The Bruins offense is scoring 2.4 goals per game. You basically need Swayman (and Korpi) to be near perfect to give this team a chance. Worst PP in the NHL, with one of the 10 worst PK in the NHL and we're hoping our goalies can give up 1 goal a game. Oh and lets not forget that Leach was brought back to help get more offense out of this defensive group. Seems maybe that's impacted their play in their own zone and now our goalies are getting hung out to dry.

If this team was scoring 3-4 goals a game and we're losing, then ya I need the goalies to steal some games for us and get their shit together. In their last 15 games, this team has been held to 1 goal or less 40% of the time. They've been held to 2 goals or less 60% of the time.

Nice Post!
Bottom line, is this team is in a world of hurt and I don't see it getting any better in the very near future.
I ask Who the hell assembled this team anyways?

 

[PatriceBergeronFan]

The big tough premise might be fine but you can't go big/tough and play 3rd man high and 1 man forechecks.

Precisely!!! Initially I blamed Montgomery for not cloning the Florida system this roster is more built for... but now with a 2nd coach who knows. Everyone is a failure this season aside from a select few performing such as Kastelic and Brazeau.

 

[SonnyBoy]

If you took Kopri's SV% last night and put it against the volume of shots Swayman faced in WPG, Korpi would have given up 7 goals. It odds that for those who were so focused on goaltending last game, they don't seem to care this game.

You know that all shots are different. With your stats math, if you let Coyle shoot as much as Pasta, Coyle would have 20 goals. Let that math sink in.

 

[LouJersey]

I just put that out there for comparison, I always supported Jake, but even I, had reached a point where it was time to move on for all involved, player and team. The problem was, you got nothing for him, and his replacement, ughh

Bingo. Big part of the problem is replacing the guys who leave with less of a player. Catches up. I know GM'd don't deal guys when they are 2nd in the division, but you need to decide that summer maybe then. Can't keep letting talented guys go for nothing when you have zero behind them.

 

[The don godfather]

Any news on lindholm ? Hope he ok. I still think he can turn it around.

 

[BigGoalBrad]

Korpisalo was bad those goals were soft but you can't expect him to follow up every Swayman stinker with him standing on his head and pitching a shit out.

 

[JerseyBruin]

Precisely!!! Initially I blamed Montgomery for not cloning the Florida system this roster is more built for... but now with a 2nd coach who knows. Everyone is a failure this season aside from a select few performing such as Kastelic and Brazeau.

The 4th line is the only one that commits to a real forecheck. Even the Coyle/Freddy line who were good at it in past seasons , you can see one or two forwards peel back to the 3rd man high after every zone entry.

The other maddening thing is even when the team gets clean zone entry or wins a puck battle on the boards they robotically send it back to the point where we have no one that can beat a goalie or even put a puck on net consistently. I get the team needs to be defensively responsible to win but the current offensive philosophy is not conducive for the players they have.

 

[Dr Hook]

You know that all shots are different. With your stats math, if you let Coyle shoot as much as Pasta, Coyle would have 20 goals. Let that math sink in.

Good point except that I will say that it isn't about letting Coyle shoot- he shoots as often as he is inclined to, which isn't a lot generally. I guess sticking him on PP1 would go some way towards addressing that.

 

[Hockeyman1962]

No PK, No PP, defense is like swiss cheese and forwards cannot score 5 vs 5. Like everyone is saying it is time to rebuild this team. One player no matter who it may be cannot turn this mess around and we have no Cap space anyway. You cannot use bandaids when you are in the middle of a train wreck.

I do not want them to make the playoffs because it will be embarassing.

Get rid of Neely and Sweeney and let a real management team srart the rebuild.

Bruins fans let's face it we are in for some hard times. You know as soon as the opposition scores 1 goal we are already in an uphill battle.

the lines are not jelling at all no offence. maybe set the lines and stick with it. no power play he just keeps sending out same players and expecting a different outcome. there is zero chemistry. coach seems like he is a hard head and wont change. better hurry season is slipping away fast.

 

[analyser]

Korpi wasn't bad. Sway would've let probably 12 goals.

He's the only one who keep trying night after night. And he keep scoring too, not like 88 who get all scoring chances and still can't score. Best chances and still only Elias has worse sht% of forwards than 88. And it wasn't captain who took brainfart penalty at start of the game. 88's laziness keep him swinging like medieval knight every game.

Start with Pasta, Sway and E.Lindholm. That is $27.25M for rebuilding. Start from there. You don't wanna keep $8.25M AHL goalie or lazy $11.25M wet powder 7.9% shooter.

Sorry to burst your bubble but nobody is going to want Sway, Pasta or E.Lindholm. The lineup for these players is going to be very short or non-existent.

 

[Score08]

Hey Donny if you’re reading this, it’s not the coaches, it’s you. Shit rolls down hill and it’s settled in your roster. Smash up job bud!

 

[Dr Hook]

Going to throw this out there and see if it sticks with anyone else's observations, but it is possible that E. Lindholm has been playing hurt since day 1? Recall he missed a bunch of camp with some injury. Anyway, he left the game early last night and there was nothing visible to indicate any injury. Maybe he aggravated something that was already bothering him by doing something otherwise innocuous that shut him down. He's been bad this season offensively, and whether we think the 80 point season was an outlier or not, he is better than what we've seen by a long way.

 

[mar2kbos]

Keep going back to Marchand saying practices have been sloppy and unfocused and they are playing that way. That’s indicative of leadership and coaching issues. There’s a deep rot developing.

 

[Dr Hook]

Keep going back to Marchand saying practices have been sloppy and unfocused and they are playing that way. That’s indicative of leadership and coaching issues. There’s a deep rot developing.

The signs were there in the pre-season, too. Many people said, oh it's just pre-season, no one plays hard, lots of kids/fringe guys getting time, it will be alright come season start. Well, I did NOT like the way the pre-season went and it wasn't about the scoreboard, but the effort level and even more, just the overall disorganized, sloppy, often clueless way the team played in those games. Something is off with the club right now, and while Monty most certainly had something to do with it, it is starting to look like there is more going on than coaching.

 

[KillerMillerTime]

Needs to be done and hopefully Jacob’s Cam and Sweeney get the memo. I’m just afraid that the greed of playoff gate money will have them all blinded of the obvious.

Sweeney has had two major off season franchise altering blunders that should earn him the unemployment line. The 2015 draft and this years FA signing of Lindholm+
letting go of 74, 43 and also Boqvist. Then add the Ullmark\Swayman soap operas
and his time son up.

 

[Dennis Bonvie]

Consider, when the Bruins put out the line of Geekie-Zacha-Pasta:

Combined they have 22 blocked shots this season. The Bruins have 8 other players that have more blocks than that themselves.

Combined, Pasta and Zacha have 31 hits. Bruins have 11 other players with more hits.

So when Pasta coughs the puck up to the other team, what can the poor defensive pair hope for in terms of help?