Why the Boston Bruins' Game with Detroit Is an Early-Season 'Must Win'

The Boston Bruins’ ongoing influx of vinegar started with a visit to Detroit last Thursday in the latter half of back-to-back game nights.

The opportunity for redress could not be clearer as they begin their second back-to-back of the 2014-15 season in the same venue this Wednesday. They can pounce on an immediate head-to-head do-over and halt a three-game pointless streak to stem and sweeten their tide.

Whether they convert their energy Wednesday night or not, another critical rematch awaits in Montreal on Thursday. The Bruins will then finish a three-game, four-night journey by visiting another divisional cohabitant in Buffalo on Saturday.

First things first, they had best ensure they have some tangible momentum in hand. For that reason, they simply need a win over the Wings.

Not a moral victory. Not even a regulation tie. A win, which would be their second in five tries this young season.

Logic says there will be no need to manufacture motivation for Thursday’s matchup, but logic does not always prevail. Look no further than the first two installments of Boston’s active three-game skid.

The headline on the team’s official blog late last Saturday night proclaimed, “‘It’s Not Bruins Hockey.’” The development in question was a 4-0 home loss to Washington, the result of a rancid reprise from the preceding Thursday’s effort in Detroit.

In that 2-1 falter on the road, Boston followed up on its opening-night victory with a mere 17 shots at the Detroit net. They amazingly held the initial upper hand despite landing only five of those attempts in the first period.

Patrice Bergeron, who supplied that icebreaker unassisted at 12:01 of the opening frame, later told Caryn Switaj of the team’s website, “It wasn’t a good effort. It wasn’t our best…We couldn’t really get anything going offensively and even in the neutral zone, so we definitely have got to do a better job. We know they’re a good skating team and they took advantage of that, by us not executing.”

Inexplicably, the same sort of sentiment surfaced after their next outing against the Capitals. That speaks to the residual nature of losing habits and how those habits have an easier time creeping in than they do accepting their ejection.

Monday’s 2-1 loss to Colorado was less egregious, but the mere result can only stoke the Bruins’ collective frustration.

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Sometimes, though, when a team brings a slump upon itself, the slump extends its life beyond the club’s control. If Boston’s bug from the last five-plus days has run its course, a more respectable effort should yield a more delectable result in part two of its season series with Detroit.

The alternative speaks for itself. Anything less than a win Wednesday night means dropping to either 1-4-0 or 1-3-1 overall on the year.

It would mean falling to 0-2-0 or 0-1-1 in those virtual four-point matches within the Atlantic Division, against the same divisional rival at that. It would mean going into the Montreal matchup on the heels of missing an opportunity to gain ground on the first-place Canadiens.

Entering Tuesday’s action, the Habs hold a four-point lead over the Bruins. They will have a game in hand by the time the rivals lock twigs at the Bell Centre, but Boston could be in a position to pull a virtual tie.

Sure, there will be 76 out of 82 games still to come afterward. Countless variables are bound to enter the fray for all contesting parties over the next six months.

That notwithstanding, the Bruins have long sculpted a standard that makes no allowances for point-getting droughts lasting a full week or longer. Their current hex is their first set of three consecutive regulation losses since March 10-15, 2012, when they dropped four in a row.

Their only other four-game winless streak since then spanned April 11-20, 2013, when they mustered one point after pushing the third game to a shootout.

The Bruins did not even fail to win on four consecutive tries during their single worst October in the Claude Julien era. Recall that they recovered from a 3-7-0 start to the 2011-12 season for a final record of 49-29-4.

If they similarly have two or three points in their stash at this year’s five-game mark, they could coalesce in plenty of time for a similar recovery. But there is always a measure of precariousness when banking on even the most proven core making up for early stumbles.

Add the fact that the NHL standings and playoff picture adhere to a different dynamic in this second post-realignment campaign.

Beforehand, there was a lesser density of divisional play in the regular season, and playoff qualification meant finishing among the top eight out of 15 teams.

Now the Eastern Conference has been compressed from three five-team divisions to two eight-team circuits. Its eight playoff passports go to the top half of each division, or five teams from one and three from the other.

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Wobbling along that fence may be a far-fetched scenario come spring for the Bruins. Then again, their aforementioned present-day standard means they aim not for a mere playoff berth but one of the higher berths.

With that in mind, if they want home ice for at least one round, they need to contend for one of the Atlantic’s top two seeds. That is what lends the bonus layer of importance to even the earliest divisional bouts in the regular season.

By the time the standings take a more accurate shape, the Bruins want to be sure they are creating congestion rather than bumping into it. The next objective after that would be to pull away from the gridlock in the middle.

Only by those means can they start to explore experimental tactics that will help them later in the season. Most notably, minute-munching captain Zdeno Chara will need occasional breathers this fall and winter if he is to hold a largely youthful defense together come spring.

For now, the Bruins need to garner gratification by replenishing their purposeful, proven persona.

They need a corporeal and figurative presence from every key cog in their core. They need the newer and younger regulars in their lineup to establish mutual confidence with their elders. After all, immediate competitors such as Detroit are trying to catch up by fostering a youth movement of their own.

If Boston maximizes its intangible retool in the Red Wings rematch, it will spawn multiple benefits for itself. Besides revising its end in the impression of the head-to-head makeup, it can spark a useful boost of energy for the rest of the road trip.

As Bergeron alluded in his aforementioned interview with Switaj, Detroit is one team capable of capitalizing when the Bruins are not fully engaged. Montreal is another, which means a better performance Wednesday is a crucial key to conviction to take fresh into Thursday’s action.

The Canadiens are idle until Thursday, 72 hours after their last extramural engagement, meaning they will be in the right range of rest. In turn, the last thing the Bruins want is to still be searching for answers while arriving on short notice with a fully refreshed, hostile host awaiting.

Conversely, getting a chance to sweep a back-to-back set would equal a timely opportunity to reaffirm a collective no-excuses mentality. There will be plenty more chances for Boston to surface as jealous guards of the Atlantic’s upper echelon, but there is ample cause to ensure this one does not slip.

Unless otherwise indicated, all statistics for this report were found via NHL.com.