Hurley: Bruins Players Lacking Pride Amid Ill-Timed Losing Streak
BOSTON (CBS) -- Stop me if you've heard this one before: The Boston Bruins are in full-on free-fall mode.
The team that started the season with a 2-4-0 record, the team that lost six of seven to start the month of December, the team that lost six straight in mid-February after seemingly righting the ship, and the team that left a dozen points on the board due to underperforming against the worst teams in the league is now the team that has also dropped five straight games when it was supposed to be fighting for its playoff life.
As a result, some rightful outrage has been spreading throughout the city of Boston.
The difference with this current stretch, though, is that rather than seeing fans panic over the potential loss of a postseason berth, the more common reaction seems to be one of disgust. Given the play that the Bruins have put forth on the ice recently, no response seems more appropriate.
It was lowlighted by a brutal display on Sunday afternoon in Tampa Bay. The Bruins' performance peaked just 33 seconds into the game, when Patrice Bergeron scored to give Boston a 1-0 lead in a game that was pretty close to being a must-win situation. Things were looking up ... for about five minutes. Vladislav Namestnikov capitalized on a mess in front, tying the game at the 5:49 mark of the first. Later, following a rare fight between Steven Stamkos and Brad Marchand, the Lightning responded by scoring twice in 15 seconds.
The Bruins responded by closing up shop.
They showed no emotion following the scrap. They displayed no push coming out of the intermission. And when a knucklepuck fluttered past the glove of Tuukka Rask nearly eight minutes into the second period, the goalie had seen enough. Rask shrugged his shoulders and waved his glove hand, which might as well have been a white flag.
Even when Zdeno Chara scored midway through the third period to cut the Tampa lead to 4-2, it gave no noticeable energy to a team that formerly thrived in such comeback situations. But instead of a rally, the Bruins followed it up with a penalty. Carl Soderberg hooked Jonathan Drouin in the neutral zone, and the Lightning hammered the final nail into the Bruins' coffin with a power-play strike from Ondrej Palat.
Game over. And to many, it felt like the season was over, too.
To be sure, the season is not over -- not yet. The Bruins own a razor-thin, one-point lead over the Ottawa Senators for the final wild-card spot, and the Senators have two games in hand. If you're playing the odds for the Bruins, it does not look good, and as a result, the finger-pointing is in full effect.
You could blame the head coach, if you want. But Claude Julien remains the same coach who's taken the Bruins very deep in the playoffs and has kept the team on a run of sustained success that had escaped the franchise for the decade that preceded his arrival. Julien's philosophy and style has not changed.
You could blame the general manager, if you want. Certainly Peter Chiarelli is not batting 1.000 this season, and he unquestionably deserves a portion of the blame as the team has gone from Presidents' Trophy winners to arguably the 10th-best team in the conference.
But where Chiarelli missed the most is in an area where most observers of the team could likely be found guilty as well. He trusted his players to perform to their capabilities. And they have failed him.
This current skid -- just like the previous stretches of losing -- falls on the players. It's not 100 percent, what with injuries and a lack of blue-line depth and so on, but it is the lion's share.
This should be a team that plays with pride. It should be a team that refuses to get pushed around, that bears down and focuses in crucial moments, that trusts in the system, that utilizes its experience to assert itself over inferior teams.
Instead, it is a team that all too often takes one shot on the jaw and refuses to get off the mat.
This is a team, mind you, with a roster that collectively has played more than 1,000 playoff games -- the majority of which came while playing together, wearing spoked B's. It's a team that should be putting all of that veteran experience to good use. Instead, it's proving it to be quite meaningless.
During the five-game winning streak that preceded the current stretch, the Bruins appeared to be "who we thought they were." Playing five games in eight days, the Bruins dug deep and battled hard, earning wins both at home and on the road, as well as in regulation, overtime and shootouts. The Bruins were at long last playing the style of hockey that has brought them success over the past five years. Finally, they had begun their season.
But it proved to just be a mirage, a temporary hiatus from a season's worth of collective indifference.
During this five-game losing streak, Brad Marchand has zero goals, one assist and a minus-3 rating. Milan Lucic has zero goals, one assist and a minus-1. Reilly Smith, fresh off signing a contract extension, has no goals, one assist and one healthy scratch. Loui Eriksson has one goal and one assist, along with a minus-1 rating. Dennis Seidenberg is a minus-5; Chara is a minus-4.
Plus-minus does not come close to ever painting a complete picture, but in this case, it's indicative of a number of highly talented, highly compensated players who are simply not making anything positive happen for their team. They are passengers, and if they don't seize some control of their play, they will soon be golfers.
The Bruins' best performances during the past week have come from Bergeron, Ryan Spooner and David Pastrnak. That's not how this team is supposed to function.
Marchand, in speaking to CSNNE, seems acutely aware of the current state of the Bruins.
"Right now it's a matter of being committed to the game, and the system. We all need to be better at that. If not, then it's going to cost us our season," Marchand said. "We don't know if we're going to get that [commitment] on each night. We can't afford that."
Marchand is right, but the fact that commitment is even an issue at this stage of the season is all sorts of wrong.
The Bruins may have relinquished the right to control their own destiny. There's no way to change that. But with nine games left on the schedule, the veteran Bruins do have the opportunity to prove they still have some pride.
That shouldn't be too much to ask.
Read more from Michael Hurley by clicking here. You can email him or find him on Twitter @michaelFhurley.
