The Boston Bruins had made incremental progress in each game since Joe Sacco took over as the team’s interim head coach.
At least they did until Friday night, when all the issues that had plagued them before Sacco taking over reared their ugly heads like Thanksgiving leftovers gone bad in a 2-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins at TD Garden.
The staunch defense that led to hard-earned wins over Utah and Detroit was nowhere to be found on Causeway Street, and neither was the fire-at-will approach on offense that buried the New York Islanders.
Even their one previous loss under Sacco, a 2-0 shutout to the Vancouver Canucks, felt like movement in the right direction.
This did not.
“We eased up a bit,” Charlie Coyle said. “Sometimes, it’s natural to be that way, but good teams bring that focus no matter what happens. You jump out to an early lead, two or three goals, or you’re down; it’s how you bring that next shift, that focus. It seemed like we kind of eased up that way.”
The night started about as well as it could’ve for the Bruins when Coyle scored 1:24 into the game for his fifth goal of the season. Tyler Johnson forced a turnover in the defensive zone, creating a three-on-two chance the other way. A quick pass to Trent Frederic and another over to Coyle, and the Bruins had themselves a nice little 1-0 lead.
A very Weymouth Thanksgiving. pic.twitter.com/80iSwrwcYu
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) November 29, 2024
It should’ve been easy to ride that early momentum, especially against a Penguins team that entered the night losing eight of their last 10 games and as the worst defensive team in all the NHL. Instead, Boston bent to Pittsburgh’s will without much resistance.
Despite being the bigger and more physical team on paper, the Bruins were anything but on the ice. The Penguins skated laps around them and had clear lanes to the net, creating chaos around Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman with constant chances off the rush.
“We got caught up in a little bit of a game that we probably shouldn’t play,” said Sacco. “It’s not to our strength. I think that we’re at our best when we’re checking, when we’re tight through the neutral zone, and when we’re stiff in our own end. We got to get back to that. I think we slipped a little bit.”
Swayman’s effort between the pipes was the only reason the score was so close, as he stopped 34 of the 36 shots that came his way.
Jeremy Swayman with a huge stop on Sidney Crosby in all alone pic.twitter.com/btFt63yDKb
— Bear With Me (@BearWithMe_Pod) November 29, 2024
It wasn’t until there were 0.8 seconds left in the second period when Pittsburgh put a puck past him when Sidney Crosby circled behind the net and set up Rickard Rakelll for a point-blank shot that Swayman couldn’t do anything about.
The same can be said of when Philip Tomasino was barely touched by any member of the Bruins before he walked into the low slot and scored the game-winning goal with 12:34 left to play.
“I want to do whatever I can to help this team have a chance to win every single game,” Swayman said. “That’s what I want to do, is give them a chance, and I know for a fact that we’re going to come through.”
The Bruins did not come through on Friday.
Not on any of their four power-play chances, during which they were more interested in playing catch with the puck rather than shooting it. Not at all in the third period, where they went without a goal for the 12th straight game at home.
“The puck is just not finding its way into the net,” Sacco said. “We had our chances tonight, but you still have to execute at a higher level in order to finish off your plays. I’m not sure that we got that done here tonight, but we still had our opportunities. We had a few power plays but weren’t able to cash in on them. Overall, it was a game where I didn’t think we were at our best.”
Even the issues with discipline that the Bruins endured early on this year resurfaced as Nikita Zadorov took a needless penalty near the end of the first period for unsportsmanlike conduct by jabbing at Evgeni Malkin with his stick while sitting on the bench.
Was this the worst loss the Bruins have experienced this year? Not even close.
But for all the issues on display Friday night, the one that leaves a poor taste is that it was the type of loss that has usually led to the Bruins spiraling.
Yes, they’ve played like a much better team so far under Sacco. But if the Bruins can fall off the wagon so easily after making so much progress, who’s to say they’ll ever stay on?
