Bruins hit new low with blowout loss to Blue Jackets at TD Garden
In a Bruins season that’s been full of frustrating losses, blowouts and no-shows alike, Monday at TD Garden felt like the true low point, with the Bruins hammered by the Metropolitan-worst Blue Jackets by a 5-1 final for their third straight defeat and fourth in their last five outings.
And as has been the case too many times this season, even with the campaign just 20 games old to this point, it was a defeat where it felt entirely too easy for the Black and Gold’s opposition, with the Jackets spotted a three-goal lead after the opening period of play.
And it all started off a sequence that should’ve been an advantage for the Bruins.
With Columbus netminder Elvis Merzlikins without his stick (and really not even close to being able to retrieve it for that matter), the Bruins appeared prime for at least one high-quality scoring chance. Instead, they whiffed on their shot, and the Jackets broke the other way, with neither Brandon Carlo nor Mason Lohrei picking up their man in time to deny what was a high-quality look.
Oh, and just for good measure, a sliding Carlo was the one that popped the puck through Jeremy Swayman for the first goal of what was a three-goal deluge of an opening 20 at the Boston net.
It was a rotten start to a night that did not get all that much better for Swayman, who surrendered five goals on 29 shots by the final horn, and has now surrendered at least five goals in three of his first 14 starts of the 2024-25 season, and at least four goals in six of 14.
Boston’s lone goal of the evening came on the power play, and courtesy of Charlie Coyle, with assists to Justin Brazeau and Mason Lohrei. And though he was not credited with a point of any sort on the play, the goal really began with what was a speedy-and-clean entry into the attacking zone from Georgii Merkulov in what was his second game of the 2024-25 season. Merkulov has now been on the ice for the last three Boston goals dating back to last Saturday’s season debut against St. Louis.
But in the latest installment of anything that can go wrong will go wrong for this club, Boston’s power-play unit actually finished this night as a minus, with one power-play goal for and two shorties against.
The Bruins have now surrendered four shorthanded goals on the year compared to just nine power-play goals for, making their plus-5 power-play goal differential the third-worst in the NHL.
On the backend, Andrew Peeke made his return to the Boston lineup after missing five games with an upper-body injury. The 6-foot-3 Peeke was initially worried that the injury (which came on a hit from the Maple Leafs’ Max Pacioretty) was going to be worse than it ultimately was, and really pushed to get back into action for what was a head-to-head with his former club.
Speaking on Sunday, Peeke admitted that there was going to be ‘a lot’ of different emotions going against his former teammates and organization, but acknowledged that it wasn’t a true ‘revenge game’ for him in the sense that the Blue Jackets ultimately gave him what he wanted a season ago by trading him out of town a season ago so that he could get regular playing time with a new organization.
The Bruins will wrap up this quick three-game homestand with a Thursday night visit from the Utah Hockey Club. The Bruins dropped a 2-1 overtime final in Utah in their prior meeting back on Oct. 19.
