"We are about to discover a lot more about just who these Bruins are. The B's will begin a short but, likely, telling three-game road Thursday night in Las Vegas against a Golden Knights team that many see as poised to break the Edmonton Oilers' two-year run to the Stanley Cup Final. And if the Golden Knights can't do it, the B's opponent Saturday night, the Colorado Avalanche, have a good shot at it."
"But even more important for this team is for it to get back to the blueprint it showed in a season opening victory over the Washington Capitals. That went out the window in their loss on Monday to the Tampa Bay Lightning, who induced a couple of bad turnovers by defensemen by Charlie McAvoy and then Nikita Zadorov to take a 2-0 lead less than six minutes into the game from which the B's never fully recovered."
"While the B's showed some spine by making it a game - they probably should have tied it on numerous occasions - the catch-up game is bad for any NHL team. It is especially true for this team that has one line (Morgan Geekie-Elias Lindholm-David Pastrnak) that is capable of scoring on a regular basis, a second one still trying to making strides toward that end, and two other lines that are very good grinders but shouldn't be relied on much for goals."
The Bruins begin a short three-game road trip at Vegas, then Colorado, finishing at Utah on a tough back-to-back. Earning points on the trip would be a meaningful measure of success. The team must return to the disciplined blueprint shown in the season-opening win; turnovers in the loss to Tampa Bay led to an early 2-0 deficit that proved costly. One scoring line (Geekie-Lindholm-Pastrnak) remains a reliable source of goals, while the second line (Zacha-Mittelstadt-Arvidsson) is showing signs of cohesion with goals in three straight games. Two lines remain primarily grinders and are not relied upon for scoring.
Read at Boston Herald
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