The Boston Bruins' worst stretch of the season has reached its lowest point yet.
Mired in their longest losing streak in five years and barely clinging to a playoff spot, the Bruins face the St. Louis Blues on Friday night in the first of back-to-back road games against elite teams in the Western Conference after losing to its worst.
Boston (28-20-9) had lost four straight entering Wednesday's contest with last-place Edmonton, and quickly fell behind 2-0 before eventually losing 4-3 after a 12-round shootout. The club's first defeat to the Oilers in 14 years was the latest chapter in a dreadful month for the Bruins, who have followed an 8-1-3 record in January with six losses in seven games.
Coach Claude Julien did not shy away from his dismay after Boston clinched its longest losing streak since 2009-10.
"In that dressing room, coaches and ourselves, we have higher expectations than what we've shown right now," Julien told the Bruins' official website. "So we're not going to hide behind disappointment and stand here and think that we're doing OK.
"We're underachieving right now and our game's got to get better. I still feel we've got the group in there to make it better, so it's up to us to take charge."
With only a slim lead over Florida for the East's second wild-card spot, the Bruins wrap up their season-high five-game road trip with West powers St. Louis and Chicago.
Like Boston, the Blues (37-16-4) face a challenging upcoming schedule, next facing Montreal and Pittsburgh to close a four-game homestand. They're trying to remain within striking distance of Nashville, which leads the Central Division with the NHL's best record.
The Blues had a three-game win streak snapped Tuesday with a 4-1 home loss to Dallas. It was only their fourth loss since Jan. 3 - fewest in the NHL in that span - but coach Ken Hitchcock was bothered that his club ceded three goals in the game's first nine minutes.
"I think this was a team that wasn't ready to compete. Weren't ready from the start," Hitchcock said. "Troubling. It's concerning."
Another concern for Hitchcock is the recent play of Brian Elliott, who was pulled 8:38 into Tuesday's game after allowing three goals.Elliott has a 3.24 goals-against average in eight starts since the All-Star break, prior to which his 1.86 mark ranked fifth in the NHL.
Boston's Tuukka Rask has had his share of problems lately as well, losing his past five games and allowing 11 goals in the last three. However, he owns a 1.53 GAA versus St. Louis - his second-best mark among West opponents - and made 33 saves in a 2-0 home win over the Blues on Nov. 28 as he outdueled Elliott.
Bruins points leader Patrice Bergeron scored that day and has continued to produce through the team's struggles with five goals in the past nine games. Carl Soderberg, though, has gone a season-high five straight games without a point even though he's second on the team with 33.
Boston has earned at least a point in eight straight trips to St. Louis (3-0-5). Nine of these teams' last 15 meetings overall have gone past regulation, and the Bruins lost all of them
BRUINS (28-20-9) at BLUES (37-16-4)
TV: NESN, FS-MW
Season series: Despite being outshot 33-17, the Boston Bruins shut out the St. Louis Blues 2-0 on Nov. 18 behind a 33-save performance by goalie Tuukka Rask and goals by Patrice Bergeron and Torey Krug.
Bruins team scope: Goalie Malcolm Subban, recalled from the Providence Bruins of the American Hockey League on Monday, could make his NHL debut against the Blues. Subban has dressed as the backup goalie four times this season. Forward Brian Ferlin was recalled from Providence on Thursday and defenseman Kevan Miller was placed on injured reserve.
The Bruins lost their fifth in a row Wednesday (0-3-2) and are clinging onto the final Eastern Conference wild-card berth in the race for the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Boston is 0-1-2 on a five-game road trip and had a three-point edge on the Florida Panthers entering games Thursday.
"I think there's a lot of frustration right now," coach Claude Julien said via the team website. "I think everybody's feeling the heat that's been put on us, and it's up to us to work through this and find ways to overcome those kinds of things."
Blues team scope: Coach Ken Hitchcock has not made a decision on a goalie for Friday. He did say Chris Porter (ankle), will play in one of the two games over the weekend. Porter has missed 21 games but has resumed practicing.
Defenseman Petteri Lindbohm was recalled from the Chicago Wolves of the AHL. The Blues had the day off Thursday and to no surprise. Following a 4-1 home loss to the Dallas Stars on Tuesday, what was slated to be an optional skate Wednesday turned into a full-scale practice.
"This has been coming," Hitchcock said. "We got away with it [Sunday] against Florida, we got away with it against Arizona [on Feb. 10], but it's been coming so gotta hit the reset button and get back to the working details of our game."
Despite the loss, the Blues, who will play the second of a four-game homestand, are 15-3-1 in the past 19 games.
2015-2016 LGB Sponsor of Not Ott, because he is a booger-eating dumb dumb
My first Blues game this season.. Headed across the state right now. I predict Blues to come out strong to make up for Tuesday... should be a great game.
[Dooger] 11:53 pm: Thank God you're here! Some Wings fans were in here trying to have sex with me.
Hoping this isn't another one of those games where we make a goalie with little or no NHL experience look like an all-star by peppering him with 38 shots and only get 1 goal. We tend to do stuff like that from time to time.
With that said...that's better than Rask being in net. Maybe this is a good thing for us to face the game after the poor showing vs. Dallas.
Unless there is some sort of issue with Rask, it sounds like the Bruins are not too concerned about our offense. I know they are trying to shake things up in an effort to kick their losing skid, but normally "shaking things up" doesn't include putting in a goalie with 0 NHL games experience.
Cheers to Peterri Lindbohm on sticking up for Oshie. His chivalry made such an impression on the refs that they gave Caron another minor. What a goddamn beaut.
2016-2017 LGB sponsor of your boy, goaltender Jake Allen and a center for Vladi Tarasenko (UPDATE: FOUND! Ryan O' Reilly. July 1, 2018).
2017-2018 LGB sponsor of a damn fine rearguard, Capt. Alex Pietrangelo.
2018-2019 LGB sponsor of the 2nd greatest Joel in Blues history, #6 Joel "Eddy" Edmundson.
I missed the first, but we were really good second and third. I wanted a hat trick for Tarasenko though. 3 in a season would be nice. Hell, he'd have more hatties than Ott has goals lol.
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2016-2017 Official LGB Sponsor of Dmitri Jaskin
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cardsfan04 wrote:I missed the first, but we were really good second and third. I wanted a hat trick for Tarasenko though. 3 in a season would be nice. Hell, he'd have more hatties than Ott has goals lol.
You didn't miss much in the first. I don't know what Hitch said during intermission, but my god, they came out on fire to start the 2nd. I was frustrated because Subban wasn't tested at all during the first. But while we didn't get many shots to start the second, we made them count. I believe we scored on the first 3 shots of the 2nd period.
I'm a little concerned with our lack of SOG in recent games, but we're winning, so as long as we keep scoring at the right times, I'm good with it.
2015-2016 LGB Sponsor of Not Ott, because he is a booger-eating dumb dumb
cardsfan04 wrote:I missed the first, but we were really good second and third. I wanted a hat trick for Tarasenko though. 3 in a season would be nice. Hell, he'd have more hatties than Ott has goals lol.
You didn't miss much in the first. I don't know what Hitch said during intermission, but my god, they came out on fire to start the 2nd. I was frustrated because Subban wasn't tested at all during the first. But while we didn't get many shots to start the second, we made them count. I believe we scored on the first 3 shots of the 2nd period.
I'm a little concerned with our lack of SOG in recent games, but we're winning, so as long as we keep scoring at the right times, I'm good with it.
The first 10 minutes of the game we didn't do much of anything. But neither did Boston. They had a handful of shots, but they weren't great chances or anything. The goal Allen gave up was awful. He just missed it...off his glove and in.
The 2nd half of the first period was a little better for us, and then the rest of the game was ours.
Even though we went a while without a shot in the 1st, I was oddly confident because we weren't really allowing Boston to do that much either.
cardsfan04 wrote:I missed the first, but we were really good second and third. I wanted a hat trick for Tarasenko though. 3 in a season would be nice. Hell, he'd have more hatties than Ott has goals lol.
You didn't miss much in the first. I don't know what Hitch said during intermission, but my god, they came out on fire to start the 2nd. I was frustrated because Subban wasn't tested at all during the first. But while we didn't get many shots to start the second, we made them count. I believe we scored on the first 3 shots of the 2nd period.
I'm a little concerned with our lack of SOG in recent games, but we're winning, so as long as we keep scoring at the right times, I'm good with it.
The first 10 minutes of the game we didn't do much of anything. But neither did Pittsburgh. They had a handful of shots, but they weren't great chances or anything. The goal Allen gave up was awful. He just missed it...off his glove and in.
The 2nd half of the first period was a little better for us, and then the rest of the game was ours.
Even though we went a while without a shot in the 1st, I was oddly confident because we weren't really allowing Pittsburgh to do that much either.
cardsfan04 wrote:I missed the first, but we were really good second and third. I wanted a hat trick for Tarasenko though. 3 in a season would be nice. Hell, he'd have more hatties than Ott has goals lol.
You didn't miss much in the first. I don't know what Hitch said during intermission, but my god, they came out on fire to start the 2nd. I was frustrated because Subban wasn't tested at all during the first. But while we didn't get many shots to start the second, we made them count. I believe we scored on the first 3 shots of the 2nd period.
I'm a little concerned with our lack of SOG in recent games, but we're winning, so as long as we keep scoring at the right times, I'm good with it.
The first 10 minutes of the game we didn't do much of anything. But neither did Pittsburgh. They had a handful of shots, but they weren't great chances or anything. The goal Allen gave up was awful. He just missed it...off his glove and in.
The 2nd half of the first period was a little better for us, and then the rest of the game was ours.
Even though we went a while without a shot in the 1st, I was oddly confident because we weren't really allowing Pittsburgh to do that much either.
not bad