Ahead of their Saturday matinee at home against the Chicago Blackhawks, the Boston Bruins received a recent reminder of just how quickly the tone of an NHL season can change.
The Bruins were riding high during an eight-game point streak before dropping both games on a road trip, including a 4-1 loss on Thursday to the St. Louis Blues.
Head coach Marco Sturm knows that his team needs to be better as it begins a stretch of 12 home games out of the next 14.
“Even the games we won lately, in the end, we were just sloppy, I would say. It finally caught up to us a little bit on this road trip,” Sturm said. “You just can’t play that way. Maybe we needed it. Hopefully it’s going to be a bit of a wake-up call for us. Just got to move on.”
The Bruins let early leads slip away in both of their recent losses, dropping Thursday’s game despite a 32-18 shot advantage after recording just 15 shots and going 1-for-5 on the power play in a 2-1 loss Tuesday to the Carolina Hurricanes.
James Hagens supplied Boston’s only offense against the Blues, who had been shut out in back-to-back games before closing with four unanswered goals against Jeremy Swayman. Two came on the power play.
“The biggest takeaway is when we are winning, we flip the page, we come to work the next day and get better,” winger David Pastrnak said. “It’s hard, but we’re going to do the same.”
Despite the hiccup, the Bruins sit atop the Atlantic Division.
“I don’t think it’s time to panic or anything. I think we’ve got some confidence and some swagger in here, so go home and regroup,” forward Casey Mittelstadt said.
The soon-to-be 20-year-old Hagens is tied for second with Fraser Minten and one shy of Pastrnak (seven goals, 18 points) for the team lead in goals with five.
It was a similar story for the Blackhawks in their first game after a seven-game homestand, as Connor Bedard’s first-period goal was all they could muster in a 4-1 road loss Thursday to the Detroit Red Wings.
“You can use whatever vernacular you want to describe it, but ultimately we’ve got to find a level of consistency that we can roll out for 60 minutes,” Chicago defenseman Ian Cole said.
Dropping four of the last five games has Chicago at the bottom of the Central Division, but the most recent one left coach Jeff Blashill feeling sour.
“We’ve had a lot of games throughout this season where we did a lot of good things and maybe beat ourselves with critical mistakes,” Blashill said.
Thursday marked the Blackhawks’ fifth straight game with two goals or fewer. They are the only NHL team without a road win (0-5-0) so far this season.
“Each guy (needs to) look in the mirror, see what you can do better with the puck, better offensively, shooting-first mentality, just take it upon yourself,” forward Patrick Kane said after his first game back in Detroit, where he spent the past three seasons.
Bedard, who started the season with a shoulder injury, has three goals and seven points through his first seven games.