Bruins crushed by Hurricanes in latest setback
To be honest, not even Terrifier 3 would be able to match the scares that the slumping, struggling Bruins put on the ice Thursday night in Carolina.
In town with the sour taste of a shutout loss still fresh in their mouths, with losses in four of five, and with their lines once again thrown in a blender like a Gremlin, the Bruins had every reason to take to the ice with their most spirited effort of the year.
But even so, it didn’t take long for things to indeed get worse for the Bruins, as they watched this game crumble before their eyes in a mere 52 seconds in the first period on the way to a 8-2 loss to the Hurricanes at Raleigh’s Lenovo Center.
The quick-strike nature of the Hurricanes went beyond the opening frame, too, as the Hurricanes continued their domination of the Black and Gold with two tallies within a 41-second stretch in the second period, and shortly after a Hampus Lindholm goal brought the B’s within two.
Carolina’s assault on the B’s, which featured incredibly easy access to the high-danger areas of the rink, made this a quick night for the Bruins’ Jeremy Swayman, with No. 1 in white pulled after he allowed six goals on 22 shots in 29:32 of time in the crease.
And this latest setback followed a familiar script for the Bruins, with the Bruins torched in another parade-to-the-box kind of night, as the Hurricanes went 3-for-5 on the man advantage. This made it the third game of the 2024-25 slate that’s featured at least three power-play goals against the Bruins.
The Bruins did not score enough to hold this relentless Hurricane attack at bay, with tallies from Brad Marchand and the aforementioned Lindholm goal Boston’s only scoring in this contest, but the real story came in the Black and Gold’s end. And in their own zone, loose would be putting it lightly, with Carolina puck carriers able to get to scoring areas with little to no resistance, and one of Carolina’s power-play goals coming with a Hurricane able to breeze through four killers with ease en route to a goal.
The six-goal differential by the night’s also made this the worst loss for the Bruins since a 6-0 loss to the Hurricanes back on Feb. 10, 2022.
The Bruins will wrap up this quick two-game road swing with a Saturday matinee in Philadelphia.