Well, what an exciting last minute and a half, Pasta doing everything he could; making a
save in net, absolutely laying out a passive Kucherov entering the zone, and scramble
shooting late, but they came up short for the first loss of the season. The loss directly
stemmed from an inability to start on time in the early afternoon matchup. The Bruins were
flat early, coughing up too many pucks including the ones leading to Anthony Cirelli’s two
first period goals. The Lightning, who came off two opening losses against the Devils and
Senators, were expected to start fast on the road, and they did. McAvoy had a poor first
period overall, flustered by pressure, coughing up pucks, out of position on defensive
rushes, wasn’t pretty from the leader on the backend to start this one. The whole d-core
looked uncomfortable in the first, not able to settle down.

The Bruins needed a bounce back, good, hard early start to the 2nd and instead gave up
another goal just 39 seconds into the period. When things seemed to be stacked against,
this team showed some fight, responding 30 seconds later with Mittlestadt’s second goal
of year, only to give up another shortly thereafter. Too many turnovers and poor defending
was the handicap in what would have otherwise been a great effort. Jordan Harris
continues to impress as a fill in 7th D getting on the scoresheet with his first of the season,
and Morgan Geekie ripped one of the faceoff to pull within one.

The third was a good attacking period, and it looked as though the Lightning were trying to
give this one up with poor play, but the Bruins couldn’t capitalize.

This was the first true test for the Bruins. Swayman stole the game in Washington, and that
was followed by two rebuilding, non-playoff teams in Chicago and Buffalo. The puck
control and defending early on was concerning, but the fight and competitiveness down
the stretch was a good sign for this young team. Simply put the Bruins won’t win many
games giving up more than 3 goals, they just won’t have the offense to plainly outscore
teams too often this season. D-zone turnovers are a must avoid for this team, because it
breaks up their structure and leads to odd man opportunities against. Korpisalo was
serviceable, made some key saves to keep them in it.

Tough stretch ahead on the road with Vegas, Colorado and Utah looming, the first two of
which will compete for the top of their division and Utah will be competitive for a playoff
spot. The first three provided a good start and nice confidence boost to a team that needs it
early, but we will really see what this team is like after in a week after this road trip.
First game of the trip is Vegas on Thursday past my bedtime. I will wait to send out the next
recap until after the road trip commences on Sunday night.