The Boston Bruins put forth one of their worst games in recent memory against the New York Rangers on Saturday afternoon.
After beating their Original Six rival 4-0 just two days earlier, it was the Bruins that lost by a score of 4-0 on Saturday. They put up a season-low 18 shots and did practically nothing on offense. While Jaroslav Halak held up well enough in goal, the defense in front of him eventually faltered and let the Rangers score two easy goals late in the game.
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Following the contest, Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy was left wondering how to fix the issues that plagued the Bruins.
"You see a game like that, as a coach, you’re like, are we tired? Or are we out of shape? And then you sort through it," Cassidy said after the game, via NESN.
What exactly went wrong for the Bruins? Cassidy couldn't boil it down to just one thing.
"It’s not an easy answer. I think it's a combination of a lot of different things," Cassidy said. "I think we're going to struggle when our top line is off. They weren't in sync. The power play wasn't in sync. Then, you're really relying on team defense and, we've been through this, where the secondary scoring hasn't been there consistently enough to make up for some of those nights."
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Certainly, all of those problems were an issue for the Bruins, and the secondary scoring has been under the microscope lately, in particular. It's easy to understand why, as The Perfection Line of Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, and David Pastrnak has done a bulk of the scoring for the team this year.
So, when they're off, the ceiling of the Bruins is capped.
It also didn't help that the B's were without Jake DeBrusk on Saturday while Marchand was banged-up entering the game. Tuukka Rask also continues to be sidelined with an injury along with three normal starting defensemen: Jeremy Lauzon, Brandon Carlo, and Kevan Miller.
But even with so many issues plaguing the Bruins, Cassidy isn't using any excuses to defend the team's play against the Rangers.
The Bruins will need to step up and fix these problems quickly. They're sitting at fourth place in the NHL's East Division and have a key two-game road series upcoming against the third-place Pittsburgh Penguins.
If the B's can bring their best effort and find success on offense, the team will have a chance to bounce back and potentially hop up in the standings. But if they struggle on offense and can earn some points, they could risk falling behind the fifth-place Philadelphia Flyers.
That could put the Bruins in a precarious playoff race position as they inch over the halfway mark of the 2020-21 NHL season.