After one other ugly loss, Bruins proceed to make it exhausting to consider

“We won’t afford to have video games like this the place we’re not ready. We’d like each level.”

Nikita Zadorov and the Bruins have been handed one other lopsided loss on the highway Tuesday. (AP Photograph/Jeffrey T. Barnes)

COMMENTARY

Nikita Zadorov didn’t mince phrases on Saturday.

Recent off of a comeback win over the Colorado Avalanche, the Bruins’ defenseman pushed again in opposition to speak {that a} pedestrian Boston roster was primed to hit the hyperlinks by mid-April.

I’m not planning to overlook the playoffs. That’s why I’m right here,” Zadorov mentioned. “I’m right here to play within the playoffs. I wish to see Boston Backyard buzzing.

“So I believe that’s undoubtedly additional motivation for us. I imply, you guys are doing a great job of writing us off, so I believe that’s extra motivation as nicely for this group. As a result of we obtained a variety of characters. We obtained lots of people who wish to compete and play within the large levels. So I believe that’s our mindset day by day.”

It was removed from a shocking retort from Zadorov and the Bruins, who’re nonetheless clinging to a playoff spot as of Tuesday evening.

If solely they backed up that impassioned sentiment with their play on the ice in opposition to the worst group within the Japanese Convention.

Handed a chief alternative to increase their win streak to 3 video games — and construct themselves some respiration room in a compacted wild-card race — the Bruins fully face-planted in opposition to the Sabres at KeyBank Area, dropping a lopsided 7-2 outcome.

It’s the kind of uncompetitive exhibiting that sadly has been far too widespread this season.

Tuesday marked the thirteenth time in simply 52 whole video games this season that the Bruins misplaced a sport by three or extra targets. Their minus-25 objective differential stands because the second-worst mark in all the Japanese Convention.

For all of their gutsy performances at TD Backyard as of late, Boston has been pushed round repeatedly on the highway this season. Following Tuesday’s loss to a flawed Buffalo squad, the Bruins are simply 9-14-3 away from Causeway Avenue in 2024-25.

“We wish to be a great highway group,” Bruins interim head coach Joe Sacco mentioned Monday about Boston’s struggles away from TD Backyard. “We get down a objective or two, you may’t let it get away from us, and I really feel like that’s taking place just a little bit on the highway. … We appear to inform ourselves that this sport continues to be inside attain, and we’ve got to have that very same perspective on the highway.”

That mindset was exhausting to glean on Tuesday in opposition to a middling Sabres group, with Boston routinely letting any shifts in momentum dissipate in brief order.

Simply 55 seconds after Mason Lohrei opened the scoring for Boston with a formidable particular person effort at 12:44, the Sabres answered proper again — with Tage Thompson blasting a shot previous Jeremy Swayman within the midst of some paper-thin transition protection.

Buffalo added to their lead within the second interval with one other pair of targets — with Boston’s defensive pairing of Zadorov and Andrew Peeke laboring all evening (outscored, 3-0 in 19:37 of ice time collectively).

By the point Brad Marchand lit the lamp with underneath 10 minutes left in regulation, it was a 4-2 sport: a frightening rating for a group hard-pressed for offense just like the Bruins, however a far-from-insurmountable deficit — particularly in opposition to a defensively poor group like Buffalo.

That hopeful sentiment lasted for precisely 30 seconds, with a brutal turnover and unhealthy reaches from each Lohrei and Parker Wotherspoon permitting JJ Peterka to as soon as once more lengthen Buffalo’s result in three tallies.

“We give ourselves an opportunity right here within the third, make it 4-2, we obtained time left on the clock and the very subsequent shift for you on the market and quit a objective. It’s simply stuff — you’re not gonna win like that,” Lohrei famous.

Even with Boston down one other beginning D-man in Brandon Carlo, it was a irritating no-show efficiency throughout for the Bruins — given each the opponent and the truth that a number of different groups hovering round Boston within the standings misplaced on Tuesday (Tampa Bay, Montreal, New York Rangers).

But it surely was additionally a outcome that shouldn’t essentially come as a lot of a shock — not in a season the place seemingly each optimistic stretch submitted by this roster is promptly undercut by a morale-sapping blowout.

There was the comeback win over the St. Louis Blues on Nov. 12 — a hard-fought outcome for a reeling Bruins squad. It was adopted by three straight losses to the Stars, Blues, and Blue Jackets (mixed rating of 15-5), resulting in the firing of Jim Montgomery.

How about that gritty residence win over the Capitals on Dec. 23? The one which was promptly led to a 1-6-2 stretch.

After these gutsy victories over the Senators and Avalanche final week, Tuesday’s letdown sadly felt all however inevitable for this Jekyll-and-Hyde crew.

The Bruins are saying all the best issues — be it pushing again in opposition to speak {that a} playoff run is out of the image this spring, or taking themselves to activity for poor play out on the ice.

“We are able to’t afford to have video games like this the place we’re not ready. We’d like each level,” Marchand famous on Tuesday.

In fact, it’s one factor to evangelise disciplined hockey and defy the critics.

But it surely’s one other hurdle solely for this group to constantly again up that speak on the ice.

And with Tuesday’s laugher of a sport removed from an outlier this winter, these requires playoff hockey are beginning to ring fairly hole.