Hurricanes Rout Bruins (10/31/24)

It was not a happy Halloween for the Boston Bruins. Their costumes may as well been movie theater ushers because the Carolina Hurricanes used them as turnstiles again and again in tonight's game. The Hurricanes pounded the Bruins for EIGHT goals in tonight's game. Six of them came against the incompetent Jeremy Swayman before Joonas Korpisalo came in to take a beating. Jack Roslovic and Andrei Svechnikov both scored twice and the Canes also pumped in three power play goals against the rapidly ineffective Bruins penalty kill. Brad Marchand and Hampus Lindholm both scored for the Bruins to make the final score a tiny bit better, but it was still an absolute demolition by the Hurricanes, 8-2 at the Lenovo Center.

                                                            What a disaster

Things went bad right from the start as a turnover led to a partial breakaway by Sebastian Aho. Swayman managed to stop the shot but that set the tone of the incompetence. The beating began 6:28 into the first period when Andrei Svechnikov passed it to Aho. Aho threw the puck in front to Jack Roslovic who scored. The Bruins got a power play when Jesperi Kotkaniemi was penalized for high sticking with 10:06 remaining in the period. The Canes killed it off but Jalen Chatfield was sent to the box for interference with 7:17 left in the period. 40 seconds later, the Canes took a bench penalty to give the Bruins a 5 on 3. David Pastrnak passed down low to Elias Lindholm. Lindholm threw the puck in front and Brad Marchand scored to tie the game. The Bruins fell apart when Cole Koepke was whistled for interference with 5:40 remaining. With 2:46 left in the period, Martin Necas passed to Shayne Gostisbehere at the point. He fired on net and Svechnikov tipped it on for the power play goal to put the Canes back on top. Just 38 seconds later, William Carrier passed to old friend Dimitry Orlov. Orlov fired on net and Jackson Blake tipped it home to put the Canes up by two goals. The onslaught continued the very next shift as Mark Kastelic was sent to the penalty box for high sticking. Seven seconds later, Seth Jarvis passed it to Gostisbehere. Shayne passed it to Necas in the slot and his shot went off the skate of Brandon Carlo and in to essentially end the game. The Canes had scored 3 goals in 52 seconds, two of them on the power play. To cap off this pathetic period, the Bruins took ANOTHER penalty when Mason Lohrei got nailed for interference to give Carolina 1:45 of PP time into intermission. The Canes lead 4-1 going into the second period.

                                                           "Well this sucks"

The Bruins managed to kill off the penalty to start the second period but both Orlov and Jesper Kotkaniemi tried to dive for penalties. The diving didn't stop as Svechnikov took a check from Pastrnak and rolled around on the ice in a manner that would have made Mike Ribeiro proud. Strangely the refs didn't blow the whistle as Pastrnak took the puck, sent it to Kastelic and David passed to Hampus Lindholm. Lindholm's blast went in and the Bruins had cut the lead in half just 3:38 into the second against goalie Pyotr Kochetkov. Then the diving finally worked as John Beecher got called for high sticking 7:05 into the period. On the power play, Necas passed to Jarvis in the slot. Jarvis passed to a wide open Svechnikov who scored his second goal of the game and Carolina's third power play goal. Just 41 seconds later, Jordan Martinook bullied Lohrei off the puck, passed it in front to Roslovic who scored again to chase Swayman. The Bruins had a chance to fight back when Pavel Zacha set up Pastrnak but Pyotr made the save. It looked like the Bruins scored with 6:26 left in the period to cut the lead in half but apparently Elias Lindholm interfered with Pyotr. As if that wasn't bad enough, Nikita Zadorov was whistled for high sticking with 1:49 left in the period. The Bruins went into the third period on the penalty kill and down 6-2.

                                                      Brutal

The third period began with the Bruins killing off the remainder of the Zadorov penalty and getting a power play of their own when Jarvis was called for holding 1:49 into it. As usual the power play produced nothing and the Canes killed it off. The Canes led the Bruins in shots 30 to 12 and then Seth Walker scored 7:36 into the period against Joonas Korpisalo. The final kick in the ass came with 7:47 to go when Necas passed to Kotkaniemi who shot from the point, scoring on a softie Korpisalo should have had. The Bruins waived the white flag after that and the Canes had devastated the Bruins 8-2.

                                                             Terrible loss

Reaction:

What do you say after a game like that? To get spanked like that when you're already sputtering shows something is fatally wrong with this team. Not only are they getting beat, they're getting routed. Its one thing if they were losing games 2-1 or 1-0 and you can say the offense needs to be fixed, but giving up more than four goals a game is inexcusable for a goalie tandem making as much money as they are. The defense was non-existent and Swayman looked like garbage. Not having training camp is coming back to haunt Jeremy and it looks like the defense has suffered because of it. Getting beat to pucks, taking dumb penalties and lousy goalie play has plagued this team since the first game of the season against Florida. They still have time to turn it around but everything stinks right now. The Bruins end the month of October with a 4-6-1 record for a paltry 9 points, 6 points behind the Florida Panthers for first place in the Atlantic Division. The Bruins look to bounce back Saturday afternoon with a special matinee with the Philadelphia Flyers. The game begins at 1:00 PM at the Wells Fargo Center.