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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[bruins cup]

Lysel. Poitras have to be called up. Have to try to get something going offensively. Pasta needs to have surgery now so he's good next season

Why management allowed him to even begin the season without surgery is beyond me

 

[BTO]

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?

Geekie-Zacha-Pasta. All you need to know right there. Tbf, Sweenious did try to upgrade with E.L. But all we have to show for it is 3rd-liner-3rd-liner-Pasta. Three 3rd-line centres and four 3rd-line wingers (hell, 3rd and 4th-line wingers) does not a good team make. Then there’s the D & G. All adds up to a 0-5 western road trip.

 

[BiteThisBurrows]

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.

You would think. My early money's on Philly. That Michkov is something special and if their goaltending comes along they might be ready to start moving up.

All that hype about getting bigger this year and then we have the Jones and Tufte busts playing in the AHL. Meanwhile I'm watching Lauko scrapping away in Minnesota having a great time. Not saying Lauko would be the answer to our problems, but Sweeney downgraded the bottom of this roster, not upgraded it. It's really frustrating this year. I think we all expected more from this.

 

[BTO]

Why do some posters insist on judging the team at their worst? Stop being myopic and try to assess the team fairly. We have the 7th best expected goals against in the league. We are 20th in expected goals for, which considering Marchand's rehab and Pasta/Lindholm playing below their potential should be reason for optimism. In the system we have Poitras, who should be a good top six forward for us by no later than next season. There is every reason to believe that the team will perform better as the season wears on.

Wow, 20th in expected goals for? Given that they play against a whole load of crap in their division and in the league as well, which is also why they just went 7-2 and are, miraculously, still in a playoff spot, that’s not the flex you think it is. Once they start to play better teams, like now, they’ll be lucky not to be 32nd. I’ll hope for 30th.

 

[Bruinfanatic]

Lysel. Poitras have to be called up. Have to try to get something going offensively. Pasta needs to have surgery now so he's good next season

Why management allowed him to even begin the season without surgery is beyond me

Lysell isn’t even producing in Providence ,Poitras has gotten hot so sure bring him back up .

 

[BruinDust]

Wow, 20th in expected goals for? Given that they play against a whole load of crap in their division and in the league as well, which is also why they just went 7-2 and are, miraculously, still in a playoff spot, that’s not the flex you think it is. Once they start to play better teams, like now, they’ll be lucky not to be 32nd. I’ll hope for 30th.

NHL needs to create a team award for xGF% and xGA%. Like the Jennings but for expected goals, not real goals. Maybe even an Xpected Goals Championship. What a banner raising that would be. A banner for goals they expected to score but didn't.

I think I'm on to something, maybe its time to create the XHL (Xpected Hockey League). Real goals scored don't matter, only the team with the most Xpected goals at the end of the game wins. Think of the ratings!

 

[MarchysNoseKnows]

NHL needs to create a team award for xGF% and xGA%. Like the Jennings but for expected goals, not real goals. Maybe even an Xpected Goals Championship. What a banner raising that would be. A banner for goals they expected to score but didn't.

I think I'm on to something, maybe its time to create the XHL (Xpected Hockey League). Real goals scored don't matter, only the team with the most Xpected goals at the end of the game wins. Think of the ratings!

They could add it along with the Impactful Hits Leader Award

 

[BruinDust]

They could add it along with the Impactful Hits Leader Award

Now that is a great idea.

 

[xStanleyCupsFor]

Pasta, McAvoy, Swayman, E. Lindholm playing WAY below what is expected of them given their salaries. (still can't figure out what happened to these guys. Maybe Lindholm was never that great but the others?)

Carlo completely forgot how to play hockey. I know people love to hate him but I thought he was a dependable stay at home D for the most part until this season

Zacha, Coyle, Frederic, Geekie coming back down to earth from their career years in 23-24 (third liners is what they are)

None of Poitras, Lysell, Merkulov have been able to grab the bull by the horns and take the next step to be impact players consistently at the NHL level

It's the perfect storm for what we're seeing here. It all went sideways for management. They made some bad projections in numerous areas and this is the result.

 

[BTO]

NHL needs to create a team award for xGF% and xGA%. Like the Jennings but for expected goals, not real goals. Maybe even an Xpected Goals Championship. What a banner raising that would be. A banner for goals they expected to score but didn't.

I think I'm on to something, maybe its time to create the XHL (Xpected Hockey League). Real goals scored don't matter, only the team with the most Xpected goals at the end of the game wins. Think of the ratings!

We could all show-up with great expectations for the banner raising only to be bitterly disappointed because there actually was no banner!

 

[RiverbottomChuck]

A big positive is all eyes are on Sweeney, Neely, Swayman, and Mac now, hopefully in that order. Sweely is quickly proving they are in fact the weak link on the team with all of their little big brain webs unraveling in the span of 4 months. It's so bad the guy that was a concensus top 3 winger can't even carry his own line now. Something is up, no one on the team seems to enjoy playing hockey. There is no creativity or passion with the exception of a blowout loss pointless temper tantrum fight that feels good but just makes the team take on more and more the identify of chumps while shedding the remaining strands of the old champ mind set. Sad days but things can change quickly in sports so play on i guess.

 

[Mick Riddleton]

I checked the score while watching repeats of 'The Office' 2-0 oh well, this game is done, back to 'The Office'. This year will free up a lot of time for a change. I j have been watching them religiously since 2010, like almost every game.

Sine I am not local, I had to watch them on NHL.com and refresh the screen every minute. So I am not going to sugar coat or sing their praises when the whole thing stinks. Being positive to me is calling it what it is, accepting anything else is settling for garbage. Press the reset button.

 

[KillerMillerTime]

Yeah maybe, but why? What would it achieve? A one -and-done, two at absolute best, and then what? Much rather miss completely and force management to accept that deeper change is needed.

I think they will realize that regardless.
There were a cintendercwith the likes of Rask, Bergeron, Chara, Krejci, Debrusk, ....all five gone and none replaced by anyone significant.
Of all negatives exposed on the team now......the biggest hit and maybe eye opening is that McAvoy has been garbage since getting owned by the Panthers round one 2023.
I know Monty, Swayman, Pasta, Carlo Gryzlek, Coyle, Lindholm get a lot of bashing ........McAvoy should top that list.
Remember the "Top 10 Dman" "Future Norris etc"

Its not a coincidence #73 play started deteriorating in '23 PO with a Bergeron who
shouldn't of been playing with a back condition that ended his career immediately after the series. Guy is falling fast on list of #1 Dmen in NHL due in part because of Bergeron not propping him up.

Guy is probably only player they could trade for players\pick(s) that have the potential to significantly reset the team.

 

[bruinmann77]

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!

Funny most wanted Donny to sign Ellias as our Center and wanted to resign Swayman. Well he did that it’s just not his fault that they so far have been a total BUST. I just hope that they look to add a number one instead of trading theirs away

 

[CAT31]

whenever the other team gets the puck in our end we go into this dumb 5 man box, never engage the puck carrier and after 1:30 of possession if we're lucky enough to get the puck back everyone's gassed so no offensive rush.

 

[Blowfish]

Lysell isn’t even producing in Providence ,Poitras has gotten hot so sure bring him back up .

Nobody is producing in Boston. Try something g!!!!!

 

[Ladyfan]

Focus on the scenery. Enjoy that.

Weather isn't good

Oh well. Matches my mood

 

[Sigh]

Funny most wanted Donny to sign Ellias as our Center and wanted to resign Swayman. Well he did that it’s just not his fault that they so far have been a total BUST. I just hope that they look to add a number one instead of trading theirs away

I'm going to pat myself on the back for not wanting to sign Elias.

 

[Score08]

Funny most wanted Donny to sign Ellias as our Center and wanted to resign Swayman. Well he did that it’s just not his fault that they so far have been a total BUST. I just hope that they look to add a number one instead of trading theirs away

The bruins needs a whole new identity from the inside out. The entire organization needs an enema . Sweeney can’t draft to save his life and his free agent moves haven’t done the job either. Barely an NHL player , barely an NHL gm.

 

[BigGoalBrad]

Anyone else going to the game tomorrow night in Vancouver?