Boston Bruins: Did Their Worst Game Come At The Best Time?

Starting with Wednesday night’s visit to New Jersey, the Boston Bruins will not have another full three-day block away from game action until the All-Star break.

After that week-long respite at the end of this month, they shall go no more than two nights at a time without engaging another adversary. In fact, with the exception of the All-Star weekend, there will be 10 sets of back-to-back game days and only five cases of consecutive practice or rest days.

For that reason, it is for the better that they thoroughly regurgitated their bugs for all to see in Saturday night’s 4-2 submission to the Dallas Stars. Now, the Bruins have a full three days to step back and assess what blatantly went wrong in only their 10th regulation loss of the season and their third since October.

In turn, they can also reflect on what threatened to deprive them of more points in several preceding games. You know something is not in pristine condition when you have twice needed to come from behind to surmount the NHL’s bottom-feeding Columbus Blue Jackets, as was the case both on Nov. 17 and Dec. 10.

Their preceding game in Phoenix, a 2-1 overtime triumph Wednesday night, made Saturday’s flagrant falter all the more perplexing. As they had done when the Blue Jackets visited TD Garden, the Bruins needlessly granted the Coyotes a regulation point that night. And they did it despite the luxury of a five-day gap from game action and what ought to have been a mentally stimulating change of scenery.

Regardless, they took the booty and ran to another non-conference city that they had not visited in over two years. Logically, their hope ought to have been to find themselves equally satisfied with the end and more pleased with the means than they were in Phoenix.

But as it happened, the confrontation with Dallas was all but more of the same en route to an unpleasantly different result.

In his team’s act of claiming two of four possible points in an altogether fleeting excursion beyond the Eastern Time Zone, overachieving third-liner Chris Kelly failed to land a single shot on net in two games. Linemates Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and Tyler Seguin each had one shotless night apiece.

Apart from Marchand in Phoenix and Seguin in Dallas, no Boston forward registered more than two shots in either game.

As a whole, facing the team that averages more shots against on a nightly basis than any other NHL team, the Bruins tested Stars goaltender Kari Lehtonen a mere 19 times Saturday. Meanwhile, their own celestial stopper, Tim Thomas, surrendered four goals for the first time since Game 6 of last year’s Eastern Conference finals.

Given how drastically they have improved their posture since a 3-7-0 run in October, there is no consequence for shoveling out the slush of that first month. With that being said, Saturday was by all accounts the new nadir of Boston’s 2011-12 campaign.

For the first time in two months, the Bruins went without any new gains in the standings through every fault of their own. This time, they did not get away with a semi-complete game, and they could not lend any credit to a Jose Theodore or an Ondrej Pavelec for a night of grand larceny in the opposing crease.

Still, it’s better for the Bruins to catch this now when they have the time to address it. After the middle of next week, the only alternative will be to let it continue to be a nuisance when they must hastily catch a flight to another city and flip their playbook to another opponent.

It is better that they suffer a self-imposed setback like Saturday’s undisciplined losing effort and really let the vinegary flavor sink in while they can. This way, they can rinse it out prior to facing off with the Devils and before they commence a grueling block of 12 games in 21 days.

With the single-most prolific offense and stingiest defense in the NHL, the Bruins depth chart of 12 forwards and six skaters constitutes an imposing 18-wheeler backed by a rigid buffer of a goaltending tandem.

They will want to have all of those tires and parts intact and in sync before the long drive through January, because there won’t be many opportunities to park in a rest area.