By Arielle Aronson/DFP Staff
The Bruins’ losing streak reached double digits Saturday afternoon when the struggling B’s lost 3-2 to the Vancouver Canucks in a shootout.
In the first two periods, all systems were go for the Bruins. They scored two power-play goals off the sticks of Zdeno Chara and Michael Ryder, and they limited the Canucks to just 12 shots on goal.
In the third, however, the Bruins wilted, allowing 18 shots on goal while surrendering the tying goal. By the end of overtime, Bruins fans knew what to expect: another shootout and a 10th straight loss.
“You’re all speechless like I am, right?” Bruins coach Claude Julien said as he opened his postgame press conference. “With that mistake, it turned into a goal, and that’s the end of it with the way things are going.”
Throughout the Bruins’ 10-game losing streak, it has been the opportunities – or missed opportunities – that are the difference between a win and a loss. The Canucks took advantage of that edge and seized on a missed opportunity to tie the game late in the third period.
After Vancouver’s Sami Salo snapped his stick on a slap shot, the Bruins pounced to clear the puck. Perhaps it was a case of being overeager, or perhaps it was simply a fluke chance, but Milan Lucic skated past the puck, leaving room for Tanner Glass to fire a shot toward the net that Pavol Demitra tipped in.
“When [Lucic] overskated the puck and [Glass] turned it around and just threw it at the net, those are little things where you’re saying, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me. Give us a break here,’” Julien said.
After the goal, netminder Tuukka Rask threw his arm up in frustration. The tone was much of the same in the locker room.
“We don’t have answers for it,” center Marc Savard said. “We don’t have excuses. We haven’t made any excuses. We’re just trying our best.”
“There was a bad break there on the second goal,” Rask said. “But you just have to battle through the hard times.”
That ability to battle has been completely missing from the Bruins’ shootout shooters of late. This was the second shootout loss in as many games for the Bruins. Boston is scoreless in the shootout in the new year.
“I guess at this point you dread seeing the shootout,” Julien said. “We keep talking about the same issue. For me, [the shootout] is the only issue right now, and it’s a real important one.”
For forward Blake Wheeler, there are no excuses. The Bruins just need to start getting the job done.
“It’s tough to stay positive because you know what the coaches are asking you to do, you’re working hard for your teammates, kind of everything you’re supposed to be doing out there,” Wheeler said. “The end result, the funnest part of the game, is not really coming for us. You just have to stick with it. Pretty soon, pucks are going to start going in off of shin pads. Hopefully, that day is coming sooner rather than later.”
Now the Losing Streak is over.