So, what do you make of that? Is this rock bottom for one of the proudest organizations in the NHL? Setting aside the fact that they could not pull out a win against one of the worst teams in the league, the manner in how they lost was horrid. After 12 rounds of the shootout, NOT ONE puck ended up past Oilers goaltender Ben Scrivens. The B's are not locked in. They cannot score. They cannot win.
Boston has accumulated two out of a possible six points thus far on this road trip. The team also has posted a very underwhelming 1-4-2 record in the month of February heading into Friday night. This trip was not going to get any easier as the Bruins took on the St. Louis Blues to close out the week.
With the Blues, this is a team that ranks in the top ten in scoring and they have one of the deepest teams in the entire league. Remember when the Bruins could brag about those attributes? Vladimir Tarasenko leads the team in points (55), hence the justification for the great rankings. However, Kevin Shattenkirk did not play on Friday due to injury. The B's needed to capitalize and crash the defense.
The Bruins recalled forward Brian Ferlin from Providence as they placed Kevan Miller on injured reserve. He skated on the fourth line in place of Daniel Paille. Malcolm Subban made his NHL debut in net for the Black and Gold. Let's what the hype is all about, shall we?
In the first period, we started to see the Bruins of old...and by old, we are only going back to January. The B's held the high-powered Blues to only three shots on goal, keeping the work load for Subban low. Brad Marchand put Boston on the board first with a quick wrist shot. For 80 minutes of hockey this season, St. Louis did not score on Boston..interesting stat.
The second period is when the B's fell apart. Subban was pulled from net after the Blues scored four unanswered goals in the second 40 minutes. To add injury to insult, David Krejci left the game after suffering a lower-body injury when he hit Alex Steen.
Not much happened after that; the teams were just skating along in the third period to just get through the night. In what was a fast-moving (and disappointing) affair, the Bruins fell to St. Louis by a final score of 5-1. Just one more chance to get this right.
The Bruins will close out the road trip on Sunday afternoon when they take on the Chicago Blackhawks.
Gold Star: Patrice Bergeron...Normally putting his name here gets old, but he really was the best player out on the ice for Boston. He had an assist and three shots on goal with a solid night from the face-off circle.
Black Star: Malcolm Subban...Three goals allowed in his debut...and they were incredibly soft goals at that. However, he needs to shake things off and move on with his career. These nights will happen.
Game Fifty-Eight Box Score
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