Bruins do little to quiet the doubters after ugly showing against Jets
"Our execution has been off there, and it bleeds into games. The way you practice is how you play."
Joe Sacco said the quiet part out loud on Monday afternoon.
Yes, the Bruins were 7-2-0 since Sacco took the team’s reins in mid-November.
But Boston benefited from one of its lightest stretches of the 2024-25 campaign over that stretch, with just one of those nine games against teams currently in the playoff picture.
That one matchup was against the Vancouver Canucks on Nov. 26 — a game that Boston controlled for significant stretches, but couldn’t find any semblance of a scoring touch in a 2-0 loss on home ice.
Even with Boston buoyed by a four-game win streak, Sacco stressed that the immediate returns drawn from the last few weeks wouldn’t mean much if his team fell flat on its face during a daunting five-game road trip.
“I’d like to see how we respond. I think it tells a lot about your team when you get on the road, about the identity of your group and how it responds to different environments,” Sacco said at Warrior Ice Arena. “We’re going to play one of the better teams in the league in our next game. I won’t look too far ahead because Winnipeg is obviously going to be a nice challenge.
“But I think it’s important that we remain true to our identity and that’s what’s given us success lately. But it’s a test on the road for us.”
So far, the Bruins are flunking.
After not giving up more than three goals in a single game since Sacco took over, the Bruins were caved in by a talented Jets team, dropping a lopsided 8-1 result at Canada Life Centre.
“This was coming,” Brad Marchand bemoaned after Tuesday’s result. “Our practices have been sloppy. Our execution has been off there, and it bleeds into games. The way you practice is how you play.”
“We lost to a better team tonight, from start to finish,” Sacco added.
After crafting an identity as a stingy, physical hockey club over the last three weeks, Boston lived up to the building on Tuesday. Well, as far as the physicality.
But three scraps from Trent Frederic, Mark Kastelic, and Nikita Zadorov in the third period — when the Bruins were already down, 6-1 — won’t assuage the pain that awaits when the Bruins review the film on Wednesday.
Once again, the Bruins’ offense struggled to land punches on Tuesday — with only a David Pastrnak one-timer beating a quality netminder in Connor Hellebuyck during the second period.
But all of the strides that Boston has made of late as far as D-zone coverage, discipline, and goaltending all dissipated during Tuesday’s beatdown.
After negating 90.9 percent of opposing power plays since Sacco’s ascension as interim head coach, the Bruins’ penalty kill coughed up three Winnipeg tallies over six opportunities.
Boston was whistled for nine total penalties on Tuesday — with a double minor for high-sticking from Brandon Carlo opening the floodgates for Winnipeg via a Vladislav Namestnikov tally 12:09 into the game.
The play at 5-on-5 play wasn’t much better.
“We made it an easy night for them and they were just doing what they wanted today,” Pastrnak said. “There’s a lot of penalties … there’s a lot of defensive mistakes at 5-on-5.”
Ironically, the Bruins actually held a 13-5 edge in high-danger scoring chances at 5-on-5 action against Winnipeg.
But Boston’s lack of finish against a top goalie like Hellebuyck — coupled with a poor night from Jeremy Swayman — led to a lopsided result.
Swayman was knocked for a career-worst eight goals in the loss — a frustrating step back for a No. 1 netminder who sported a .918 save percentage in six games since Sacco’s promotion.
As noted by 98.5 The Sports Hub’s Ty Anderson, this marked the first time a Bruins goalie has given up eight goals in a single game since Dan Vladar in April 2021, as well as just the fifth time it’s happened since 2003.
Despite only generating an expected goals rate of 1.84 at 5-on-5 action, the Jets managed to score five against Swayman over that significant stretch of play.
“Some of the goals that I let in, I know I can stop them,” Swayman said. “And that’s something that I hold myself as a standard, and when you let those in, it’s not a great feeling. I want to make sure that that doesn’t happen again and staying sharp and playing my game. I know I can stop those goals. So that’s what I’m going to do and push forward.”
The road isn’t necessarily going to get any easier for the Bruins on this extended road trip.
The Bruins still have the Kraken, Canucks, Flames, and Oilers on this trek, with Vancouver, Calgary, and Winnipeg already in playoff position as of Tuesday night. Both the Oilers and Kraken sit three points or fewer out of a wild-card spot.
Boston’s record might reflect a team that has started to trend in the right direction under Sacco. But that optimism was always going to be undercut by the quality of competition they faced over the last few weeks.
And through one game of this road trip, the Bruins aren’t doing much to dispel the doubt that this roster isn’t all that much better than the fodder that they trounced over the previous nine games.
“It’s not the start of the road trip that we wanted, but we’ll look at some things, we’ll correct some areas that need fixing like we always do, and we’ll just get back at it tomorrow in practice,” Sacco said.
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