Wednesday, January 7, 2009

wild 1 - bruins 0

The Bruins suffered their second-straight loss, and first shutout of the season, in a game against the Wild last night. Jacques Lamaire's defense-first strategy kept the Bruins - boasting the NHL's best offense - goalless and earned the Wild their second-straight shutout victory.

The highlights I saw showed many a Bruin with shots on net and valid scoring chances, however, a hot Backstrom and a completely clogged neutral zone, kept the Black, White and Gold at bay.

Media focus is now on whether two straight losses equal a skid, and Coach Julien is expected to rip his team, promoting a harder work ethic to create more offensive success.

I find the loss to the Wild a little ironic, given that the Bruins have been labeled a "defense-first" team for the last couple of years. Now that this same team outscores more opponents than any other team in the league, they are seen as susceptible to the same stalwart defending that every other team faces against Minnesota.

Either way, the Bruins are back on home-ice on Thursday against the Senators. If the B's merely roll out of bed and don't even compete, I think we can expect some lineup changes as Coach Julien tries to light a spark under his squad.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Seems that Bruins forgot how to lose.
Their game became terrible after Wild opened score

The Editor said...

Ha ha! Yeah, but its like falling off a bicycle....or the top of the standings.

If the Bruins hadn't already established that they can tenaciously battle back from being down a goal or two (especially given how they've coughed up the first goal in nearly every one of the last 10 or so games) I would be pretty worried. But I think there's a confidence that Julien's installed in the team. Hopefully they can access that again and bring their competition back up to the level it needs to be at.

Thanks for the comment!