theathleticuk
The Minnesota Wild and Carolina Hurricanes sit tied atop the NHL standings with 34 points apiece, and their performances have justified that position. Both teams are on a collision course for a Stanley Cup Final meeting in June, but the Boston Bruins are not part of that conversation.
Boston's 6-2 loss to Minnesota on Saturday underscored the disparity. Earlier in the season, on October 27, the Bruins managed only 16 shots in a 2-1 loss to Carolina. There is no disgrace in falling to superior opponents, and coach Marco Sturm acknowledged as much. "They do it right," Sturm said of the Wild. "They're a Cup contender for a reason. They showed us how you have to play a man's game. It was good to see for us. Those are the teams now. We want to be one of them. We're just not there yet."
While the Bruins felt their effort against Minnesota was better than in Thursday's 5-2 loss to Montreal, in which starting goaltender Jeremy Swayman was pulled, conceding 11 goals over two games is not a recipe for success. The team cannot continue to rely heavily on Swayman, and its offense, though capable of explosive stretches, cannot consistently compensate for defensive lapses. The path forward requires improved defense.
"Our foundation of being a good team is defense," Fraser Minten said. "We have to get back to that."
Defensive Adjustments and Breakdowns
Before the game, Sturm attempted to address one of Boston's blue-line issues by scratching Mason Lohrei for the first time this season and inserting Connor Clifton alongside Frederic Brunet on the third pairing. "We felt like the pair in general spent way too much time in our end, and a lot of turnovers," Sturm explained. "Hopefully, with a righty and a lefty and a little bit of experience with Cliffy coming in helping out Brunet, I think that's what we're looking for — to be a little bit cleaner and limit the D-zone time."
Sturm had been pleased with Lohrei's play as the right-side defenseman on the third pair, noting his more consistent defending and offensive support. However, Sturm felt Lohrei struggled against Montreal, and those issues affected Brunet's game as well. "Maybe it wasn't his best," Sturm said. "In general, I think he can be better. He's not the young, young kid anymore. It's a little bit higher standard now, too, that I have and we have. We just can't afford having a pair like that, not just for one game. It's been that for a little bit."
Clifton, though, was on the ice for Minnesota's first goal. He could not recover in time from a check along the end boards to cover the front of the net, and Swayman was caught looking the other way as Blake Coleman settled the puck behind the net. Before Swayman could recover, Ryan Hartman took Coleman's pass and scored at 6:54 of the first period, giving the Wild a 1-0 lead.
In the second period, Quinn Hughes threaded a four-on-four point shot through traffic past Swayman. Later in the frame, a Coleman slap shot deflected off Nikita Zadorov and into the net. Minten's power-play goal gave Boston life, and Tanner Jeannot's fight with Marcus Foligno three seconds later added momentum, but Hartman scored off the rush at 10:00 of the second to swing the game back in Minnesota's favor.
"You go down one, two, three," Zadorov said. "At the end of the day, you're in a hole. It's hard to climb out against top teams like this. They're experienced. They play good defense. They have a good goalie. We just need to be a little more patient in those games."
Boston pushed back in the third when David Pastrnak slipped a short-side puck past Jesper Wallstedt at 4:45, but less than two minutes later, Danila Yurov responded off a two-on-one rush to seal the outcome. "When you play a top team like that, they do that to you," Sturm said. "That's where we just have to be better at that. That's what you've got to learn, too. The next shift after you score, that's the biggest one. It was for them. Not for us, unfortunately."
Originally reported by theathleticuk.