Boston Bruins: Solid 60-Minute Efforts Remain Scarce, Blemishes Worsen

The Boston Bruins have now gone through nine consecutive games without raising the upper hand early and keeping it up until the final siren.

The last time they scored first and never looked back was en route to a 2-1 squeaker against the Montreal Canadiens Jan. 12. In addition, that was also the last time they mustered a set of back-to-back victories, something they have failed to do on four tries since then.

Both trends continued through Thursday night’s 3-0 stinker at the hands of the Carolina Hurricanes, although the latest installment marked a new low in this period of patchiness. For the first time since their previous shutout loss Dec. 8, the Bruins trailed continuously from the moment they shed first blood.

No spilling of initial or temporary leads, no equalizers, no nothing.

Scratch that. It was a whole lot of nothing, with all 18 skaters contributing to a collection of 71 empty calories in the Carolina zone.

Of the 71 attempted shots, a seemingly dense 47 reached Hurricanes goaltender Cam Ward’s property, including 22 in the first period and 20 in the third.

But it took them until that closing frame to start forking after, let alone cultivate, any enticing rebounds. And only then did the Bruins begin to habitually shoot from a threateningly close distance.

Too little, too late. When fourth-liners Daniel Paille and Gregory Campbell each took a stab one second apart in the fourth minute of the final stanza, the Hurricanes had already inserted their third unanswered goal.

Ditto when Chris Kelly pursued his own rebound after unleashing one wrister from 39 feet and issued another from 15 feet. Ditto when Boston drew its lone two power plays on the night, only to spill the bulk of both with penalties of their own.

One can, and should, offer a stick salute to Ward, who answered his single greatest workload of the season with the 47-save shutout. And one could argue that the Bruins were unfortunate to catch the Canes at points in the season when Ward has been at his best, which he surely was not in November and December.

With that being said, Boston is atop the Northeast Division and engaged in a footrace for first in the conference for a multitude of reasons. The same applies to the Hurricanes and their quest to depart the basement.

And given that they were trying to avert a season-series sweep Thursday night, the Bruins ought to have had a lethal appetite for redress. And they should have followed that right to Ward’s front porch, where the likes of Milan Lucic, Brad Marchand and Benoit Pouliot typically deposit their goals anyway.

But there was only a negligible amount of that, especially in the first period, when what paper gauged as a 22-shot blizzard was really a continuous, non-accumulating flurry.

The Bruins could have had a more lasting impact on the scoreboard and the complexion of Thursday’s contest if they had done more maneuvering around Ward’s praetorian guards and dished up a decent number of rebounds.

How and why that didn’t happen cannot be excused, especially when all of the first 40-plus minutes were played at five-on-five. It is old news that Boston still ranks No. 1 on the league leaderboard in that category, whereas Carolina is No. 27.

Even if prior results and a hunger for big game piloted the Hurricanes to an unusual compete level, a countering thirst for dignity ought to have bolstered the Bruins Thursday night. Intangibles should have been on their side and should have activated all of their superior tangibles.

It never happened, or at least not when it still mattered. Not when Eric Staal granted the visitors the initial lead at 11:51 of the first period. Not when goaltender Tuukka Rask aroused the TD Garden masses with more than one stimulating save to preserve the one-goal deficit deep into the middle frame.

Not even when they entered the third period, another one of their fortes, with a somewhat surmountable 2-0 pothole glowering at them.

Not until the game was already out of reach.

At least they bit back and either stayed within one goal or usurped control of the lead when they fell behind against Tampa Bay, New Jersey, the New York Rangers, Philadelphia, Washington and Ottawa.

Normalcy will not officially be back in the Bruins’ circles until they can get back to tallying consecutive goals and preserving the resultant leads en route to consecutive victories.