The Boston Bruins hope that turning the page to a new game leads to a different result when they host the Los Angeles Kings in the sixth game of a disappointing seven-game homestand on Saturday afternoon.
Thursday’s 4-1 loss to Seattle marked the Bruins’ third straight setback and fourth in a five-game span (1-3-1), but it was not for a lack of effort.
Though they were rare for coach Jim Montgomery’s club last winter, these types of streaks happen over the course of the marathon that is an 82-game regular season.
“Happy with a lot of parts of our game (on Thursday),” Montgomery said. “We’re not getting the results right now, and sometimes you go through that during the season. We’ve got to stick together, we’ve got to keep working, keep grinding.”
Boston piled up 38 and 37 shots on goal over their past two games but came away with just one point by taking the Tampa Bay Lightning to a shootout on Tuesday.
Against the Kraken, the Bruins recorded the first 11 shots of the game but could only muster David Pastrnak’s team-leading 34th goal of the season at the 4:54 mark. The winger had actually been on a four-game goal scoring drought prior to Thursday.
How can Boston get over the hump? Montgomery believes it will take some grit.
“It’s going to take some sandpaper goals where it goes off of us or stuff and that didn’t happen,” the coach said. “We had incredible looks. We hit posts. Those things happen. You have nights like that.”
The Bruins have now gone since Feb. 8 against Vancouver without clinching two points.
“These kinds of games are tough when you think you deserve a better fate,” forward Morgan Geekie said on Thursday. “But, it’s a good league, (Seattle is) a good team, so we’re just going to try and bounce back on Saturday.”
The Kings, meanwhile, are 3-1-1 in their past five games, having bounced back from a 7-0 loss at Buffalo on Tuesday to edge past New Jersey 2-1 two nights later.
Thursday marked the season debut of Viktor Arvidsson, who missed the first 50 games following back surgery in October. Arvidsson recorded five shots on goal in 15:43 of ice time.
“He’s just a ball of fire and plays with a lot of passion,” Los Angeles coach Jim Hiller said of Arvidsson. “I didn’t know how he was going to do. I knew he would show passion, but I thought he played very well for being off that long. Not only was he energetic, but he was dangerous and looked like he hadn’t missed a beat.”
That’s all part of Arvidsson’s plan.
“That’s how I play. (I’ve) got to play that way,” he said. “It’s been a tough two years. I’ve been out for almost 11 months out of two years. So, it’s been a long road back and it was really nice to be back out there, feeling the competitiveness, being around the team and on the bench.”
It was, indeed, a competitive game against the Devils.
Quinton Byfield scored a game-winning, power-play goal with 5:37 left in the third period, while David Rittich preserved the win with 26 saves in his fifth consecutive start.
–Field Level Media