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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[Aussie Bruin]

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.

 

[bbfan419]

They'll make the play offs. The league is full of weak , thin rosters.
Bruins are playing the worst hockey they've played in decades ......and sit in a play off spot. Ha!
That's today's watered down 32 team NHL.

Agree the # of teams now means a watered down league and Bettman still wants to expand.

 

[Therewolf31]

Sweeney basically traded Heinen, Jake, and Forbert to Vancouver for "Lin-home" and Zadorov (I admit I was in favor of the two signings, but hated seeing Heinen leave). They had no more cap space to replace Jake.

Who is playing really well other than Marchand? You could argue no one. Playing decently are Kastelic, Koepke, and Korpi. The only other plus players are McAvoy and Zadorov, and they aren't playing particularly well.

Harry Neal always said that your best players must be your best players, and McAvoy, Pasta, and Swayman have been far less than their best. Pasta may not get to 30 goals at his current pace.

Last year, Bergy's and Krejci's retirements were offset by career years for Colye, Zacha, and Geekie. This year has been regression to the mean or worse.

The only things saving this team now are: 1) they've played more games and their 3rd place position is a mirage (TBL will soon pass them); and 2) Buffalo, Detroit, Ottawa, and Montreal are really, really bad.

Sweeney has to resist the urge to trade any draft picks; we're going to need them.

Don't sleep on Ottawa. They've got the young talent to make a run to the playoffs

 

[bruins19]

Oh, they are performing. It's called a tragedy. In this case, a Greek tragedy.

Well played.

They once again made a shitty goalie look spectacular.

McDavid is going to Sittler these guys in a few days.

I remember that game. Ten points.

 

[JAD]

Thank God I did not stay up to watch the shit show.

There was hope until the borderline highstick (above crossbar?) goal by Seattle early in the third.
After that Boston had to try to open things up being down by two goals. Once Boston abandoned their tight checking game and began taking chances, it opened up more chances for Seattle, and well, the rest is history.

It's really sad that the only goal Boston was able to score was by Marchand and that was on a penalty shot. Absolutely no other Bruins forward is showing any kind of offensive consistency.

Pastrnak? He has to have a hand, arm, shoulder, or back injury of some kind. I have never seen him mishandle, whiff, miss the net, and fire as many weak ass shots as he has this season. It's really baffling.

I really wish they would try, for a game or even a few shifts, putting Kastelic up with Marchand and Lindholm. Why? Because Kastelic has some speed and is willing to hit and dig pucks out from behind the net. He would bring energy and get the pucks to Lindholm or Marchand. Marchand is at his best out in front of the goal line and can make things happen.

 

[Hookslide]

Do they have the team speed to swarm like Florida does, though? Legit question.

Good question, cannot be answered until they actually start moving their feet, then we can judge.

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

what type of surgery are we talking, and how do you know he needs surgery.

 

[Hookslide]

Agree the # of teams now means a watered down league and Bettman still wants to expand.

You are so right, keep expanding, this has been tried and done before, and you can put the timeline on when teams will be in trouble financially, and when they start folding and cutting back to say 32 teams again. History will repeat itself. Betteman is the worse piece of crap that NHL could find.

 

[mjhfb]

You are so right, keep expanding, this has been tried and done before, and you can put the timeline on when teams will be in trouble financially, and when they start folding and cutting back to say 32 teams again. History will repeat itself. Betteman is the worse piece of crap that NHL could find.

Or worse, become so diluted that another league will rise up as a legitimate alternative.

 

[Dennis Bonvie]

What would you like to see happen?

I'd like to see Pasta, McAvoy and Swayman play up to the level they are more accustomed to. Get a new coach after the season ends. Hopefully the best one available. Not tearing it down and starting from scratch. I don't want the pre-Esposito Bruins of the 1960's again.

 

[PaulD]

Agree the # of teams now means a watered down league and Bettman still wants to expand.

Yea.....not good

 

[PaulD]

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.

Before his value plummets any more . Bs should trade him for a first round pick, a young winger , and take the free cap space that comes with that.

 

[bruins cup]

Good question, cannot be answered until they actually start moving their feet, then we can judge.


what type of surgery are we talking, and how do you know he needs surgery.

What are you talking about pasta?
He needs surgery he talked about it during the off season the management Sweeney said in training camp they're not going to do it now because he feels like he could play through it but obviously it's affecting him now he's not only playing bad but he's missing practice I don't know why they put this off they could have had him back for the second part of the season now if you do it he misses the rest of the season and if you wait to the off-season then he'll miss the start of next year so there's no win-win they should have did it right away in August

 

[bbfan419]

You are so right, keep expanding, this has been tried and done before, and you can put the timeline on when teams will be in trouble financially, and when they start folding and cutting back to say 32 teams again. History will repeat itself. Betteman is the worse piece of crap that NHL could find.

This is it, Bettman only cares about putting more cash in the owners pockets, he cares nothing about the game. There are some markets that could be good for the NHL, but rather than expand, they should look at relocation where attendance is not doing well enough. Please NOT Atlanta again!

 

[bruins cup]

What are you talking about pasta?
He needs surgery he talked about it during the off season the management Sweeney said in training camp they're not going to do it now because he feels like he could play through it but obviously it's affecting him now he's not only playing bad but he's missing practice I don't know why they put this off they could have had him back for the second part of the season now if you do it he misses the rest of the season and if you wait to the off-season then he'll miss the start of next year so there's no win-win they should have did it right away in August

I understand how management was hesitant not to have them have surgery because they are severely lacking offense coming into the season but now they're just making matters worse because this is something that's going to take a longer recovery now because he made it worse by playing through it and if you take him out of the lineup now that's going to be very tough cuz they're not scoring goals as it is but like I said if they don't do it now then he won't be available in October or November next year if they wait to the off-season this is not good news

Good question, cannot be answered until they actually start moving their feet, then we can judge.


what type of surgery are we talking, and how do you know he needs surgery.

 

[DavidK]

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

Zacha has scored 57 and 59 points in consecutive seasons. The notion that he's a third liner is nonsensical. He also should have way more than 6 assists this year - I've noticed that a lot of his plays have gone unfinished (not that he's the best finisher himself).

Geekie I would agree is the definition of a third liner.

 

[BTO]

Weather isn't good

Oh well. Matches my mood

It’s Vancouver. Weather’s never good. Still, mountains and ocean. Can’t beat that. Hey, maybe this will be the game the Bruins win!