Marco Sturm doesn’t want to talk about silver linings after Bruins fall to Vegas
“That's not our standard. We just got to be way better."
For the second game in a row, Marco Sturm’s Bruins had a chance to secure at least a point against one of the top teams in the NHL in the Vegas Golden Knights.
Much like Boston’s 4-3 loss to the Lightning on Monday, Sturm’s club showcased plenty of resolve at T-Mobile Arena.
After storming back from what was a three-goal deficit against Tampa, the Bruins shrugged off what was a 6-3 Vegas lead in the third period on Thursday — lighting the lamp twice against Akira Schmid and chasing an equalizing goal for the final 14:48 of regulation.
The Bruins had zero points to show for their efforts against Tampa and Vegas, but the silver linings could have been there if Sturm wanted to unearth them.
A Bruins team seemingly destined to win games, 2-1, given their lack of establishing scoring talent, has shown a knack for staying off the ropes in back-and-forth shootouts.
And after last year’s team displayed a propensity for letting go of the rope in one-sided blowouts, Sturm’s squad has displayed plenty of fortitude out of the gate — a promising sign ahead of a season with plenty of ups and downs.
But speaking postgame, Sturm wanted little to do with whatever positives could be drawn out of a second-straight loss.
“Well, the positive was I think [Jeremy Swayman] was really good tonight. We let him hang in there for a long time. And, yeah — guys battled back,” Sturm said postgame on NESN. “But if you want to play that way, we’re just never going to win. … We cheated the game pretty much, right. Even though the first period was actually okay, the mistakes we made over and over again, [we don’t] want to play that way.
“We don’t want to play back and forth. We don’t want to play just like we did last game against Tampa. It’s way too many goals against and easy breakdowns. So almost glad it happened, because it shows us we have work to do, and we just can’t play that way.”
Any sort of affirmations drawn from two competitive games against Tampa and Vegas can easily be undercut by a concerning trend of miscues that have started to pile up for a team that doesn’t have the personnel to consistently win high-octane track meets.
Sturm has preached several times this fall that the Bruins’ best path toward contention lies in deploying a rigid defensive system that turns a game into a slog — while relying on Boston’s big guns at 5-on-5 play and special teams to land the necessary punches to win on most nights.
That sentiment was hard to discern on Thursday, with a skilled Vegas team routinely pouncing as Boston handled the puck like a hand grenade in their own zone.
Swayman (31 saves on 37 shots) had little time to breathe on a night where multiple turnovers led to Vegas generating 17 total high-danger scoring chances — a game removed from coughing up 13 Grade-A chances to Tampa.
“We just didn’t defend well enough,” Charlie McAvoy said postgame. “And we knew coming in that they were a good team, that they want to attack off the rush, they want to make a lot of plays. They play a unique style from a lot of teams in this league. And they got a ton of skill, so they made us pay.”
The Bruins don’t have the firepower to stay afloat when they’re making life easier for opponents in their own end. Nor is this team doing itself any favors when it comes to ill-advised penalties and lapses that led to what was a 5-on-3 sequence for Vegas that stretched for over 90 seconds — which immediately gave way to a double-minor infraction by Pavel Zacha.
Swayman, Nikita Zadorov, Sean Kuraly and other penalty killers deserve plenty of credit for negating Vegas over that extended stretch on the man advantage in the second. But it was far from a banner night on special teams for Boston.
Boston’s perfect showing in shorthanded situations came to a close on Thursday via two Vegas goals — with the eventual game-winner off the stick of William Karlsson in the third period a byproduct of Boston clearing the runway for the pivot to skate right to Swayman’s doorstep.
The Bruins’ power play nearly sapped any semblance of momentum away from Boston in the second. With the Bruins on the man advantage and trailing, 4-3, in the closing minutes of the frame, Casey Mittelstadt telegraphed a feed to David Pastrnak that was easily picked off by resident cross-ice Hoover vacuum Mark Stone.
Seconds later, Stone and Karlsson cashed in on a shorthanded tally — putting Boston behind the eight-ball once again in Vegas.
Further compounding Boston’s woes was a no-show performance from Boston’s top-six unit at 5-on-5 play. A majority of Boston’s offense was generated by bottom-six stalwarts like Mikey Eyssimont, Tanner Jeannot, Mark Kastelic, and Sean Kuraly.
Pastrnak scored a power-play tally, but the Bruins were outscored, 1-0, in his 14:40 of 5-on-5 ice time while skating with first-line center Elias Lindholm.
A second line of Pavel Zacha, Casey Mittelstadt, and Viktor Arvidsson fared even worse — with Boston getting outshot, 4-0, and outscored, 1-0, in just 5:12 of 5-on-5 reps before flip-flopping Zacha and Geekie on the depth chart.
“To be honest, if my line, the top six … [if] we have a good game, we had a big chance to win,” Pastrnak said. “We got the scoring. Unfortunately we have to own it. The top six, we weren’t there today.”
The Bruins have showcased plenty of fight so far under Sturm’s tenure this fall.
But fight alone isn’t going to result in points in the standings — nor is Boston’s first-year head coach going to be complacent with incremental growth from what was a cellar-dwelling team just a year prior.
“That’s not our standard. We just got to be way better,” Sturm said. “We got to buy in on our defensive effort. And that was just not the case.”
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