The Boston Bruins have seen some improvement under new coach Joe Sacco, but they still struggle with big losses.
The Bruins are 15-12-3 for the season, and 7-3-0 since Sacco took over for Jim Montgomery on Nov. 19. However, they have a minus-19 goal differential, which is tied for the fifth-worst in the NHL, following a tough 8-1 loss to Winnipeg on Tuesday.
Boston will aim to avoid another heavy loss when they play the Seattle Kraken on Thursday.
Despite a four-game winning streak, Bruins captain Brad Marchand had a bad feeling as the team started their five-game road trip in Winnipeg.
“This was coming,” Marchand said. “Our practices have been sloppy, our execution has been off there, and it bleeds into games. The way you practice is how you play, it starts there and we haven’t been good enough. So, we need to do a better job at being good in practice and that will translate to games.”
“(The Jets) were very good. They were good and we were not good. We weren’t executing. We were lost in our coverage and we were lost in our battles. So yeah, they were good, they made plays, but we did not have a good game.”
This loss was the Bruins’ seventh of the season by three or more goals, and their first under Sacco.
David Pastrnak scored midway through the second period to make it 3-1, but the Jets pulled away with five goals in the third period. Pastrnak leads the team with 28 points and 10 goals, one behind Marchand.
“It’s 3-1 after two periods. We’ve been in that position before,” Sacco said. “We thought that we could certainly work our way back into the game but we didn’t. … But there’s things that we need to address and correct, and we will.”
Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman stopped just 27 of 35 shots.
“Some of the goals that I let in I just know I can stop,” Swayman said. “I hold myself to a standard, and when you let those in, it’s not a great feeling so I want to make sure that doesn’t happen again. … We didn’t use the momentum that we built (winning four straight). We’ve got four more games this road trip. We’re going to take one game at a time and I’m excited for that.”
The Kraken returned home on Tuesday after a 3-1-0 road trip to Carolina and the New York area, facing the Islanders, Devils, and Rangers. Seattle had to settle for a 2-1 shootout loss to the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers, despite creating chances in overtime.
Chandler Stephenson scored the only goal for the Kraken on a breakaway in the first period, and goalie Joey Daccord made 32 saves. Jared McCann had the secondary assist on the goal, marking his 100th assist for the Kraken since being selected in the 2021 NHL expansion draft.
McCann is day-to-day with an injury after missing practice on Wednesday.
“We’ll take the point,” Stephenson said. “Obviously, it would have been nice (to win), but at the same time, we still did some good things. But I think we’ll just look to be better next game. … Joey played outstanding for us, gave us a chance, and we just couldn’t buy one in overtime.”
