If you were to answer that question without hesitation, you would more than likely say that you are petrified of their future. If you take a minute to think about it, then you would say that they have a great opportunity in front of them.
Yes, the B's lost back-to-back games at home and three of the last four overall. Despite falling to a very beatable Dallas Stars' squad, Boston needs to put that in the past immediately. They will embark on a huge Western Conference road trip over the next two weeks, starting on Friday night when they traveled to Vancouver to square off against the Canucks.
Remember these guys from the 2011 Stanley Cup Final? This team has gone through a huge overhaul since then. Ryan Miller is now the starting goaltender, no more Ryan Kesler, and Radim Vrbata is an All-Star this season. #differentanimal
Traveling to Western Canada is always a challenge. Let's see if the Bruins could take on the first leg of this trip with accumulating points in mind. The Bruins have every intention of making up some significant ground...even though it will come as a result of the most difficult of circumstances.
Tuukka Rask was back goal for the B's. However, the defensive pairs were shaken up due to the sub-par performances on the blue line all around over the last week.
The Bruins got off to the worst possible start by allowing two early goals in the first five minutes of the game, both scored by Shawn Matthias. The sloppy play in the neutral zone and the careless passing by Boston was straight-up awful. The B's pulled within one on a goal by Patrice Bergeron. Vancouver started to play much more physical with Boston, which carried over into the second period.
The second 40 minutes absolutely belonged to the Canucks. They were dealing (and receiving) huge hits from the opposition and forced the B's to second guess every move they made. Rask played okay, but the offense just could not get anything going. They were out-shot 12-4 in the second period, and they trailed 3-1 entering the third period.
Boston only had one win when trailing by two goals at any point this season, so that stat did not bode well for the team at all. Unfortunately, Friday night was another struggle. The Bruins just never recovered from the early deficit, not to mention the plethora of brain lapses throughout and failing to score on the power play. In a game that they desperately needed to get things going, Matthias finished with a hat trick for Vancouver in the 5-2 victory for the home team. Rask made 20 saves on the night.
The Bruins will continue the road trip on Monday night against the Calgary Flames. In the meantime, enjoy the weekend off.
Gold Star: Patrice Bergeron...His goal and usual hard effort carried his team for a brief amount of time early on in the game.
Black Star: Dennis Seidenberg...He looked so discombobulated out on the ice with his minus-three rating. He was also getting bumped off the puck very easily and made awful turnovers. He really is starting to wind down.
Game Fifty-Five Box Score
Updated Wild Card Standings
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