Bruins running out of time and ways to lose
Bruins captain Brad Marchand has a lot on his plate these days.
Following Boston’s worst loss of the season Tuesday night in Buffalo, the second-year captain took to Thursday’s game looking to set the tone for his club. That, uh, did not go as planned.
Marchand was whistled for a penalty that opened the door to Winnipeg’s first goal, and the second Jets goal of the evening came as a result of a Marchand turnover. Marchand would respond with a power-play strike of his own, but a period in the closing seconds of the second period opened the door to the third-period, power-play goal that earned Winnipeg the victory and helped speed up the Bruins’ demise in a 6-2 loss. Marchand also picked up a 10-minute misconduct before his night was officially over.
“Well, I think he’s just trying to impact the game, right, physically,” Bruins interim head coach Joe Sacco said of his captain’s second-period penalty. “And just, the timing of it, towards the end of a period here, you don’t want to go in the box at that situation. it’s a tight hockey game.
“But, he’s trying to impact the game physically and be hard and show that we want to be invested in the game physically, and unfortunately, the penalty was what it is.”
After the loss, Marchand even looked like someone who’s going through hell right now. It’s hard to blame him right now, as this is absolutely not how anybody inside the Bruins’ walls saw this season going for the club, who began Friday on the outside looking in in the East’s bunched-up playoff race.
“It’s been a different year,” Marchand, who has done his best to appear poised and calming whenever the Bruins have run into trouble this season, said following Thursday’s setback. “Obviously, we’re facing a lot of adversity in our group this year. And we don’t have a choice but to work through it, you know?
“You can’t get caught up in frustration. Obviously, none of us are happy about where we’re at and the position we’re in and especially considering where we expected to be to start the year. But you can’t focus on that. You have to focus on being better for the next one.”
But the problem for the Bruins is that the familiar patterns remain, and they’re actually somehow getting worse with each loss. After a debacle in Buffalo that saw the Bruins give up response goals right back to the Sabres after both of their goals in a 7-2 defeat, the Bruins did the same in quick order in the third period, with Winnipeg’s game-winning goal and insurance marker scored 24 seconds and 66 seconds after the Bruins successfully erased a two-goal hole against the best team in the West. The insurance goal, by the way, was a borderline own-goal from the Bruins’ Mason Lohrei taking the puck into a place that, well, to be honest, no defenseman should ever take the puck in a close game. For the Bruins to be the team they want to be (a playoff team) this season, that simply can’t happen.
Yet, this is where the team is at.
Losses like last week in New Jersey and Thursday against the Jets sort of show where this team falls short. The Bruins lack the raw talent and speed that most contenders in 2025 possess, and when you lack talent and speed, you have to play a borderline mistake-free game. They simply don’t seem to have the wiggle room that those opponents do to erase their mistakes with a goal the other way.
In fact, going back to that loss in New Jersey, the Bruins have scored just five goals over their last 244 minutes of five-on-five play. Four of those goals have come from Morgan Geekie, while the other came from Lohrei in the Black and Gold’s loss in Buffalo on Tuesday night. Thursday, meanwhile, marked the 12th time this season that the Bruins finished a game without a five-on-five goal to their name. They are now (a predictable given their power-play struggles for the majority of the season) 2-10-0 in such a spot.
It’s just an almost impossibly punchless attack, and as the losses mount and the playoff odds continue to dip, it’s fair to wonder if this team has finally hit its limit and the pressure has eclipsed a breaking point.
Here are some other thoughts, notes, and takeaways from another ugly loss…
Monday-Morning-QB’ing the goalie move

Truth be told, there’s a good chance it ultimately wouldn’t have mattered given what the Bruins did (or rather didn’t do) at the other end of the rink, but did the Bruins make a mistake in goal by going with Jeremy Swayman for Tuesday in Buffalo and then going with Joonas Korpisalo on Thursday?
And perhaps more importantly, why did they do that in the first place?
I’m gonna admit, this is a complete Monday Morning Quarterbacking of the situation. I didn’t really think of it until I was on the Green Line home — somewhere between BU East and Amory St., I wanna say — but why would the Bruins not go with their No. 1 goaltender against the best team in the NHL?
Again, it probably does not matter given the Herculean effort it takes for the B’s to win a game (they’re not winning unless they allow one goal or fewer), but something that stands out as a little weird and worth second-guessing when you compare your odds of winning Tuesday compared to Thursday.
Lohrei gaffe an example of what Bruins ‘need’ to embrace

This is by no means an attempt to excuse what was essentially an own-goal from Mason Lohrei in the third period of Thursday’s loss. It can’t happen. Like, it just can’t. But this another example of the overall confusion that comes with these Bruins and where they are at right now. I think, ultimately, most fans are on board with the idea of integrating more younger talent (Fabian Lysell and Georgii Merkulov) and living with the mistakes that come with being a younger player in the National Hockey League. But can the Bruins live with that? That’s the real question lingering over this club right now, and something they may have to ultimately embrace in the name of short-term pain for long-term gains down the road.
Right now, there’s no reason for guys like Lysell and Merkulov to be in Providence.
As of Friday, Lysell (a first-round pick in 2021) has four goals and 11 points in his last nine outings in the minors. He’s a speed and skill wing, and even has a penchant for being a bit of an agitator with said speed and skill. Merkulov, meanwhile, has four goals and 11 points in his last eight games. In the NHL, meanwhile, the Bruins continue to ice a lineup that regularly features Trent Frederic (two goals and one assist in his last 23 games), Justin Brazeau (one goal in his last 13 games), and even waiver-wire fodder like Max Jones and Oliver Wahlstrom. The P-Bruins scorer that the Bruins did decide to reward (Vinni Lettieri) gave you goals in back-to-back games, but has now seen his ice time drop in five straight games, and logged a season-low of time on ice in Thursday’s loss.
For a team that continues to struggle to generate much of anything offensively, and for a team that’s making errors as is, what’s a couple more risk-reward types coming up and growing on the fly?
Pastrnak takes beating in loss

This offense runs through David Pastrnak. The Bruins know it, and their opponents know it, too.
And after the Sabres took it to Pastrnak on Tuesday night, the Jets did more of the same in what was an absolutely maddening night against the Black and Gold’s superstar.
The Jets kicked things off early with a Logan Stanley cross-check to the ribs that left Pastrnak in noticeable discomfort for the remainder of his shift and then on the bench.
And then it continued with what was a full-on punch to the face of No. 88 courtesy of Neal Pionk.
Ultimately, this is not sour grapes about the non-calls, but more that Pastrnak continues to be keyed in on without a physical response from the Bruins. If this team is going to go anywhere between now and Game 82, Pastrnak has to remain upright and at something close to 100 percent health.
It’d be great to see the Bruins take no prisoners next time someone touches their top star.
Oh, and hey, even with Pastrnak punished throughout the evening, Pastrnak’s on-ice presence was really the only thing that led to much of anything five-on-five in the loss. The Bruins held a 27-18 edge in shot attempts in 11-9 edge in shots during Pastrnak’s 15:55 on-ice sample at five-on-five play compared to a 19-21 mark in shot attempts and 7-10 deficit in shots when he was off the ice at five-on-five play.