(weak groan of pain)

First period:

The Preds had basically unlimited access to the front of the net. Finally, late in the period, Max Jones was ejected for tripping just 11 seconds later Ryan O’Reilly was tipped past Jeremy Swayman on a Roman Josi shot. 1-0 Voord.

Too bad, but unfortunately that wasn’t the worst thing the game gave us. Let’s move on, okay?

Second period:

Boston played a little better! They kept things moving!

Unfortunately, the Bruins also continued to allow Nashville virtually unlimited access to the net, and Tommy Novak took advantage of Boston’s inability to clear the net and scored Nashville’s second goal. 2-0 Voord.

Third goal of the year for Mr. Novak. He would be second on the team in goals scored if he wore the black and gold.

Let’s just get this over with.

Third Period:

In the third, it all evened out, but the B’s offensive woes continued as they couldn’t find a way to beat Juuse Saros, and in fact they found ways to beat themselves; such as a Zadorov turnover and a failed keep-in that resulted Gustav Nyquist made a breakaway and he telegraphed the puck home to make Nashville’s lead essentially unassailable. 3-0 Voord.

The B’s tried to salvage something from an empty net chance, but there was no hope. Boston also gave up a goal Luke Evangelista scores his first goal of the season on an empty netter.

Bruins give Nashville its first win of the season in a 4-0 shutout.

Game Notes:

• Your TOI leader was Hampus Lindholm, with 22:36 recorded.
• The Boston Bruins offense is collapsing at a rate that should honestly scare you. The B’s do not have control of the play at any stage of the game, nor do they have any coordination with the puck. They cannot create dangerous chances, nor can they attack the net meaningfully. They are slow in ways that shouldn’t be possible. Their Top 6 can’t get it done, and neither can their middle six-minute munchers. When both your stars and apparently your fourth line are so essential to your team’s success, you’re in trouble. The Bruins need more of their top lines and bad. There is simply no other alternative.
• Worse yet, the Bruins defense, at least in my opinion, has become completely dependent on Charlie McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm playing at their A+++, otherwise things get rushed. They’re failing to get out of the zone with depressing regularity, and now they’re starting to have puck control issues at the point in the offensive zone. I’d say Jeremy Swayman should seek financial compensation for putting up with this, but he’s already figured that out, so I guess he should ask his skaters for tips.
• 0-fer on the power play, which seems to get worse with each successive penalty. It feels deeply Sisyphean in how useless it is. They currently sit at 24th overall and honestly, it could be remarkable if the Ducks weren’t on an insane run of bad power plays. Something has to change there.
• Nikita Zadorov hasn’t necessarily been bad as a Bruin (although tonight wasn’t exactly a great night for him), but he has can’t stay out of the box to save his life, and while their PK hasn’t suffered yet, it would probably be better if he was on it instead of looking at it once a game.
• Mason Lohrei is turning back into the man he was during the regular season last year; someone who struggles with decision making, has very confusing issues with puck management, and starts floating in space where he shouldn’t be is disappointing beyond measure. I was told it was better than this. I wanted to believe it too. Now I’m just irritated and exhausted.
• The Max Jones experiment is over until proven otherwise. Routinely a net negative in possession, and was directly responsible for the final two penalties of the first period that gave Nashville their first goal. This was, for the record, the best game he has played in a Bruins uniform to date. That should be humiliating.
• Elias Lindholm is one of the most mysterious players the Bruins have; he has played every game, and he has essentially no middle ground in on-ice performance. He was either extremely positive, as in over 60% of the shooting stats, or a extreme negative and struggles at about 30% at best. Tonight was a bad Lindholm night, and even with the way Pasta and Zacha drove the fans crazy, he stood out. To me, it feels like he keeps standing out because of how much swing in effectiveness he has. At least he won most of his confrontations.
• Jeremy Swayman had a .927 SV% night. With the way Boston plays, he’ll have to be at least a .960 player or better to get anything done.
• There is a lot of concern among fans about Jim Montgomery and whether or not he can properly motivate this team to play better. I think it’s natural for fans to start blaming senior leadership for bad stretches like this, especially… but I think the better question this team may have to come to terms with is… what else? can does he do more than change players on the roster? Call Fabian Lysell? Let Tyler Johnson give it a try? Keep fighting until you accidentally get a team’s star in the trash for five minutes? Have all the coaches yelling until the paint peels in the locker room and at Warrior? He has the ingredients handed to him; a team that may have committed itself to one side of the game when it probably should have participated in a host of others, and now it has to make a dish with them. When Cole Koepke leads your team in points after 7 games? Something has gone very, very wrong and I’ll be real; a coach can only do so much. Their problems are, or at least I fear they are, a little too big for one man to solve without unlimited access to a buyout calendar and a list of upcoming free agents.
• It’s still early. Maybe playing in Boston will wake them up.

Well, I hope you enjoyed the easy game this week because next up is the Dallas Stars heading to Boston. That match is Thursday at 7 p.m.

We’ll see you there.