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

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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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The hockey in a full rebuild would be unwatchable. They went out and spent bank on a former 42 goal scorer who was also purportedly a solid 200 foot player, and added a monster d man for muscle. Lindholm is a hallway night light in terms of offense and smaller Z cannot stay out of the box. Sway held out and has not lived up to half of his new salary. If those horses came in, this would be a different team.

Yeah it would be borderline unwatchable, in the early phases. I don't see that as a problem. The process is what it is and if you enter into it you have to live through the pain of hitting the bottom and hold onto hope that it will ultimately pay off and lead to better times.

Maybe there is another path to Cup success for the Bruins. If so, great. But I am leaning more and more towards a rebuild being the best option. Could be wrong, but the main thing for me here is I'm not afraid of it. Rebuilds are a fact of modern cap/draft leagues. I don't see why Boston should be immune from them.

As for the current roster, yeah almost every player could be doing better. But they aren't, and have given very few indications that they are going to. Even if they did you would still have fundamental problems around lack of speed and scoring, a mismatched defense, a core that that just doesn't sit right as a unit, and an extremely bare prospect pool. No simple matter to get this roster not just up to decent but to outright contender status, which frankly is all that matters. Still, the situation might be salvageable in the shorter term, whether in this year or the next. I just have doubts.
 
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