The good news for the Bruins is that three of the next four games will be at the oh-so-friendly Garden. The bad news? Those opponents they’ll on Causeway Street are no pushovers.
That starts on Thursday with the Western Conference-leading Winnipeg Jets, who smoked the B’s, 8-1, on December 10 in the ugliest in a long line of hideous road losses.
The B’s are coming off one of them, a brutal 7-2 loss in Buffalo against the Sabres, who are bringing up the rear in the Eastern Conference.
As coach Joe Sacco has rightly pointed out, the B’s had done a pretty good job of bouncing back after some unsightly losses, especially when that next game is at home. Just last week, after an unsightly loss 5-1 loss in New Jersey, the B’s came home to post good wins over Ottawa and Colorado. And if they somehow manage a win over Winnipeg on Thursday, that would go a long way to erase Tuesday’s debacle in Buffalo.
Still, you can’t erase those losses. They now have 12 Ls with a deficit of three goals or more on the season. That explains their very un-Bruin-like minus-25 goal differential. And while they’ve shown resilience after those humbling defeats, one has to wonder how much each of those losses takes a bite of the team’s belief in itself.
But Sacco is not concerned about that right now.
“I think our team believes in what we’re doing, they believe in the process and when they execute it at a high level, it works. They’ve known it, they’ve talked about it, they understand that,” said Sacco. “Obviously, you don’t want to see those games and they’ve happened a couple more times than we’d like. But no, I think there’s a strong belief system in the room that we’re capable of not letting that happen when we’ve needed to stop the bleeding or whatever it is. We’ve got to do a better job there but I still believe the group has a strong belief system.”
One thing you can’t deny is that this team has been playing severely shorthanded for a while now. Hampus Lindholm (knee) has been out since November 12 while Charlie McAvoy (wrist) has been out since January 11. In Buffalo, they got the extra whammy of Brandon Carlo coming down with an illness.
There’s a good chance that they could get two of those players back. Carlo participated in Wednesday’s optional skate while McAvoy expressed optimism that he could return for the Jets. Lindholm, who was off skates for a longer time and needs to build back some muscle, was less optimistic. While Lindholm wasn’t definitive, saying he was taking things day by day, he also hinted that it may be wise, with five games before the two-week break for the Four Nations tournament, to come back after the break.
“It’s been a long time since I played, I want to make sure when I get out there I can make a different for the team,” said Lindholm, who stayed on the ice long after the practice. “It’s frustrating being sidelined but it’s just the way it is. It’s easy to rush things but coming back and not be able to play to the standard I hold myself is not going to be worth it. I try to really push myself for now and get back to that level I know I can be at.”
McAvoy, with his injury not affecting the legs, has been able to continue skating throughout his time on the shelf and, though a final determination had not yet been made, he sounded ready to go. He’s hoping he and others can provide the boost that the team could use.
“That’s what we’re hoping for,” said McAvoy. “Whenever you’re not full strength, you have it in the back of your mind. You don’t want to focus on it. Obviously, it’s next man up. But when a team is shorthanded a bit, it doesn’t help anything. I’m excited to get back and I know Lindy’s the same way. Whatever we can do to help the team, we’re in a spot where every single game matters. The sooner we can be at full strength, the better.”
The B’s have found themselves in what for them is a foreign position. They’re in a dogfight to make the playoffs. By points they’re inside the bracket, by points percentage they’re outside of it.
McAvoy hopes they can use that as a positive in the remaining 30 games and, he hopes, beyond.
“I think it’s more of a glass half full type of thing,” said McAvoy. “Every single game is important. There’s two points on the line, so I think if you look at it that, you can find excitement and joy, instead of seeing maybe an ending to the runway or whatever. Every game’s important. In this league, there’s nothing better than playoff hockey. That’s always the goal. Well, it feels like you get a little bit of playoff hockey in the regular season now, which is something different. This group really hasn’t had to stretch much in years past. We’ve always had a pretty secure lead and knew where we were. This is different for us. And if we can find consistency and approach it the right way, this could be something that gives us an edge.”
The B’s could use an edge anyway they can get it.