Yikes!
On a day dedicated to sugar and spookiness, the Bruins put in a performance scarier than any Halloween horror flick and got pummeled by the Hurricanes, 8-2 in Raleigh.
If you were hoping for a bounce-back performance from the B’s after a frustrating night against Philadelphia on Tuesday, you absolutely didn’t get it.
Instead, the Bruins were bad on defense, bad on special teams, inept on offense, and looked generally helpless against Carolina.
Brad Marchand and Hampus Lindholm each scored for the Bruins, but it was little consolation.
Jeremy Swayman didn’t even make it through half of the game, pulled after allowing six goals on 22 shots — though it’d be hard to point at Swayman as the problem.
No, this was a team-wide debacle, the kind of loss that ratchets up the pressure on a team already feeling it.
Jack Roslovic got the scoring started six minutes into the game, beating Swayman from the high slot with a penalty pending on the Bruins. 1-0 Carolina.
Things didn’t look so bad for the B’s when Brad Marchand cashed in on a 5-on-3 power play seven-ish minutes later, making it a 1-1 game.
Annnnnnnnnnnnnd then the wheels fell off!
The Bruins allowed three goals in just about 60 seconds of game time to end the first period.
Andrei Svechnikov made it 2-1 Carolina with 2:46 left in the first.
Dmitry Orlov made it 3-1 Carolina 38 seconds later.
Martin Necas benefited from a friendly bounce on the power play to make it 4-1 Carolina just 14 seconds of game time after Orlov’s goal.
Lindholm would give the Bruins some life four minutes into the second period, netting his second of the year to make it 4-2 Carolina.
That was as close as it would get. Svechnikov scored again on the power play around five minutes later, making it 5-2 Carolina.
Roslovic scored again about 40 seconds later to make it 6-2 Carolina.
Sean Walker would add insult to injury in the third, making it 7-2 Carolina.
Annnnnnd then for one final indignity, Jesperi Kotkaniemi would add another midway through the third to make it 8-2 Carolina.
Yes, 8-2.
Mercifully, that was the final.
Hey, at least the Hurricanes didn’t break double digits!
Game notes
- Woof! No offense. Terrible team defense. Bad special teams. Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad. To be honest, this game probably wasn’t as close as a six-goal gap would suggest. It may as well have been 18-2.
- The Bruins allowed three power play goals on five opportunities for Carolina; they only cashed in on one of five power plays of their own.
- The Bruins had five shots on goal in the first period, and then just five more in the second. You’d think, with the B’s chasing the game in the third, they’d ratchet up the attempts on net, but nope. How many shots did they have in the third? Five!
- To best honest, I’m not even sure what else to say. This performance was a disaster, in all aspects of the game. At least against Philly, you could point to frustration, blocked shots, “close but not quite,” etc. This wasn’t that. This was a pummeling.
- How do you fix this? Good question. You’ve tried juggling your lines. Call-up from Providence? Trade? It seems too early for a coaching change, but if there’s another performance or two like this in the next couple of weeks, that may not be off the table.
I’m not going to spend anymore pixels on my insights on this game. Instead, have at it in the comments.
The B’s will be back in action Saturday afternoon in Philadelphia.