Boston Bruins Need to Start Drawing First Blood Again

The Boston Bruins bookended the first full calendar week in March with a pair of virtually identical storylines. They impelled head coach Claude Julien to exhaust his timeout upon dropping to a 2-0 deficit in the first period and then fell short in the resultant cramming session en route to a 4-3 loss.

In between, they did muster their first pair of consecutive victories in precisely eight weeks, but not without having to surmount 1-0 and 2-1 potholes against Toronto and a 1-0 disadvantage versus Buffalo.

Only twice in their last nine games and thrice in their last dozen outings have the Bruins tuned the opposing mesh first. Furthermore, since the All-Star break, Boston has sculpted itself an initial 2-0 lead on three occasions while granting the adversary the same jumpstart six times.

All nine times, the team with the original multi-goal cushion subsisted well enough to claim a regulation victory.

Having just repressed a Buffalo Sabres team that is on the playoff/no-playoff borderline and snapped their protracted streak of streak-lessness, one would think the Bruins had the requisite traction to exact a more complete and assertive effort on the Washington Capitals.

Instead, mere hours in advance of Spring Forward 2012, they skated counterclockwise back to last Sunday’s loss to the New York Rangers.

By the 8:15 mark of Saturday afternoon’s first period, the visiting Capitals had unleashed seven unanswered shots and eight unanswered shot attempts in a matter of two minutes and 37 seconds. They got the inadvertently and inevitably overtaxed Tim Thomas to blink twice on three registered stabs in a span of 25 seconds, sandwiching one center-ice faceoff.

Julien, who has a dense recent history of well-timed timeout usage, did everything in his power to perk up his pupils. But not unlike the first six minutes and 15 seconds in Manhattan, the eight minutes and 15 ticks that were already lost on Saturday were just not to be had back.

The Bruins ultimately needed to resort to a vain, last-minute, six-on-five cramming session. Their last bid for a 4-4 knot fell with 63 seconds to spare courtesy of Brad Marchand. Afterwards, Washington clamped down and finished rewarding itself while helping appropriate karma bite Boston as penance for another faulty start.

Granted, the Capitals’ second wind after Boston managed to even the score at 2-2 can be partially attributed to an opportunistic power play. And Thomas likely had no chance of Jay Beagle’s snap shot moments after Greg Zanon’s or Brooks Laich’s deflection while Zanon did time for another infraction.

Even so, the stay-at-home blueliner Zanon’s repeat trips to the sin bin would have looked immensely costlier if there were a scoreless tie and/or 1-0 difference at hand. Had Boston’s strike force matched or exceeded the energy of their Washington counterparts, let alone cultivated even half of the same early results, there is no telling how different the complexion of the game might have been.

Beginning roughly four minutes after Brad Marchand tallied a second-period equalizer, Zanon along with David Krejci combined for three unanswered penalties. With Laich’s eventual game-winner coming a mere three seconds before Zanon’s eventual release, the Bruins were effectively forced to spend 5:57 out of 8:32 shorthanded as they tried to first preserve a 2-2 tie and then prevent a 3-2 deficit from swelling.

Krejci’s infraction for unsportsmanlike conduct spoke to the pace of the game more than either of Zanon’s offenses. The Bruins were less than a minute removed from falling behind again when Krejci beat a pending Milan Lucic beyond the Washington blue line.

His choice to vent his frustration over the resultant offside on the puck cost him and his team two minutes and any extra ounces of energy that shorthanded segment drained.

The action was explainable, if not excusable. The Bruins had only just recompensed a two-goal hole and now had another deficit glowering at them. Krejci was understandably eager to pursue a quick equalizer and steal the momentum right back again.

Naturally, Krejci should have restrained himself when that eagerness literally pushed him over the line for a stoppage of play. At the same time, the Bruins as a team should have done more in the tone-setting phases of Saturday’s contest to ward off that unhealthy breed of desperation in the first place.