For the most of the 2023–24 season, the Boston Bruins have been the best team in the Eastern Conference. The Bruins have been a Stanley Cup contender all season long, even though they aren’t even close to the club that set numerous NHL records the previous season.
That being said, Beantown has recently begun to go awry. Boston has dropped three straight games and seven of ten overall, which is unusual for them as they are now 34-12-14. In their last six games, they have exceeded regulation four times, a club record that will not sit well with Massachusetts fans.
The Bruins’ late collapse against the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday night compounded their issues; they led 2-0 in the third but ultimately fell 3-2 in overtime. That was followed on Monday at Climate Pledge Arena by another lethargic lead against the Seattle Kraken, a 4-3 shootout loss.
President Cam Neely made it plain that the team needs to improve before the NHL Trade Deadline on March 8th in order to make a deep run.
Regarding his trade deadline strategy, Neely told Fluto Shinzawa of The Athletic, “That’s a big list.” Given where we are, that is a very large hope. However, we’ll undoubtedly work to come up with a solution that will present us with chances for improvement. It would be excellent to have another stiff defender. Furthermore, you could always deploy offensive support.
After Monday’s loss, the Bruins head back to TD Garden 1-0-3 on the road trip. The team hasn’t practiced since Feb. 18, and that is probably contributing to the poor powerplay and penalty killing numbers the squad is putting up as of late.
Here, our PKs clearly faltered a little. Power play is the same thing, Neely said. “As well as just putting away games. But in the last few games, we had the opportunity to win hockey games thanks to our power play. When it comes to special teams, we’re better than we’ve demonstrated. I’m not as worried about it as I previously was. We demonstrated earlier in the season that we performed well in both of those categories. However, there is still room for improvement. Unfortunately, finding practice time is the issue.