The Boston Bruins fell 4-1 to the Calgary Flames Tuesday night at TD Garden.
The Boston Bruins fell 4-1 to the Calgary Flames Tuesday night at TD Garden.
With just over 30 games remaining in the regular season, NHL teams are digging deep and trying to polish their product ahead of playoffs – whether they’re guaranteed a spot or not.
This was made abundantly clear for the Boston Bruins Tuesday night at TD Garden in their 4-1 loss to the Calgary Flames.
“It starts ramping up. I feel like we’re kind of past like the ‘dog days’ of the season. Now it’s kind of a full push,” Trent Frederic said Tuesday.
The Flames – who are five points out of a wild card spot in the Western Conference – not only beat the Bruins, but wholly outplayed them. Calgary was faster, smarter and more desperate for the two points on the line.
While Boston sits comfortably at the top of the Atlantic Division with 71 points and will be in the “contender” category come spring, each matchup down the stretch will be a challenge – no matter the ranking of its competition.
“It gets harder. Guys start making pushes. Even teams that aren’t necessarily in it are fighting for jobs,” Frederic said. “It’s just that time of the year – I guess everyone’s kind of getting evaluated for what’s next year if you’re not on a winning team, and what’s the future if you are.”
The Bruins’ lackadaisical performance Tuesday is not representative of their entire body of work in the 2023-24 season, and it likely doesn’t represent what’s to come, either. But after eight days off from the All-Star break, it was a reminder of the parity in the best hockey league in the world.
“Every single night in this league can be a humbling experience,” Charlie McAvoy said Tuesday. “We’re the first-place team in our conference, so we’re gonna get everyone’s best – even more so than we did before. This is good. This is good for us to know what to expect from everybody.”
Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said Tuesday’s loss wasn’t about his team looking past its opponent, they simply “weren’t good enough.” Neither will be a usable excuse Thursday night as Boston welcomes the league-leading Vancouver Canucks to TD Garden for a duel between the NHL’s top two teams.
The sentiment in the room following Tuesday’s dud was ‘put it behind you, and quickly.’ The Bruins don’t seem to be dwelling on the downer showing, and are determined to get back to playing winning hockey.
“I don’t think I’m going to look too far into it, to be honest with you,” McAvoy said. “That’s it. There’s always room for improvement, and we will get better because of this.”
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