A pair of floundering teams will meet up when the Boston Bruins visit the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday night.
The Bruins (30-34-9, 69 points) have lost seven straight and 15 of their last 18. The Red Wings (33-33-6, 72 points) have dropped 11 of their last 14, virtually ensuring they’ll miss the playoffs for the ninth consecutive season.
During their current skid, the Bruins have been outscored 36-13. They were thumped by Los Angeles 7-2 and Anaheim 6-2 in their last two games.
The last time Boston strung together this many losses was 2000.
“It’s a frustrating time right now,” Bruins interim coach Joe Sacco said. “When you get down a few goals like we do, you start to try to play catch-up hockey and you open yourself up for more mistakes, and that’s the problem right now.”
In Boston’s latest loss, the Ducks took control with two goals late in the second period to take a 4-1 lead.
“A lot of disconnection and every goal started in the O-zone,” Bruins star forward David Pastrnak said. “Lost the puck or unforced mistake, and then we are defending.”
Pastrnak’s power play goal in the second period was the lone bright spot. He became the fifth player in Bruins history to reach the 35-goal mark in four consecutive seasons.
The game in Detroit wraps up a string of five consecutive road games, though the Bruins had two off-days before Saturday’s contest. Boston leads the season series 2-0, with a 2-1 road triumph on Nov. 23 and a 3-2 home win in overtime on Dec. 3.
“We have nine games left,” Pastrnak said. “We still need to build something in this group and be connected.”
The Red Wings are coming off a 4-3 home loss to Ottawa on Thursday. They trailed by three goals until Lucas Raymond and Vladimir Tarasenko scored in the third period. However, they were unable to force overtime.
“Every loss is hard right now,” Detroit defenseman Simon Edvinsson said. “Everybody knows how important these games are. We were close and had some chances all game and didn’t get the puck in. The last goal wasn’t there for us.”
The Red Wings had a handful of power plays in the first period and didn’t cash in. Ottawa led 3-0 going into the third.
“You don’t score and the other team gets a lot of confidence,” Red Wings coach Todd McLellan said. “Their goaltender starts to feel real good and you wonder if it’s ever going to happen (scoring). You are wearing out seven or eight players because they played a lot of hockey there and it showed up in the second period.”
“We didn’t have a lot of legs and power to get through things, it affected us that way. We had chances and they didn’t go in and on the other end they score two of their first three shots and that’s generally really deflating.”
Following Saturday’s game, the Red Wings play six of their remaining nine games on the road.
–Field Level Media
