The Boston Bruins play six of their next seven games on home ice in TD Garden. How they fare could very well determine their fate for the rest of the season.
The Boston Bruins' backs are up against the wall. After an exciting and hope-inspiring start to the season, the Bruins lost four straight games to go from 3-0-0 to 3-4-0.
First, the loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning was very close, but small mistakes undid Boston last week.
After that, it was always a brutal stretch on the road on paper. Three games in four nights across three cities and two time zones is about as unideal as it gets.
In reality, Boston fought hard in Vegas and Utah, while Colorado dominated in Denver. Still, of Boston's four losses, three came by just one goal. By no means have they been non-competitive or completely out of it.
Last night in Utah clearly was Boston's best game, but they still came up short.
"I thought our guys did really well today. They gave everything they had from the first to the last minute. That’s exactly what we wanted. We didn’t deserve to go home empty,” Bruins' Head Coach Marco Sturm told media in Utah. “We’re still in an okay spot. Yes, four losses in a row, of course, it sounds not great. But we played some really good hockey games.”
It's important for Boston to not panic. Yes, they're not where they want to be. But, it's still a very long season. For how squeezed-in that road trip was, now the Bruins get to turn around and sit at home for two weeks, save for a 24-hour trip up to Ottawa.
It's an unmistakably massive hinge point for this season in Boston. If this stretch of six games out of seven inside TD Garden goes poorly, things could get uncomfortable very quickly.
Sturm already healthy-scratched Casey Mittelstadt last night in Utah and called out his top guys before the game. An even-keeled mind will be very important for Boston.
The schedule ahead is not overly daunting, especially with the majority of games at home.
It all begins on national television Tuesday night when Brad Marchand returns to TD Garden with his Florida Panthers. Florida and Boston are both 3-4-0.
The Panthers are 0-4-0 away from home this season and have scored just 15 goals in seven games. It's been a major struggle without Matthew Tkachuk and Aleksander Barkov, and they've stumbled out the gate.
Florida's 15 goals in seven games is tied for the fewest in the Eastern Conference, so goals will be at a premium Tuesday night.
After Florida, the 2-2-1 Anaheim Ducks roll into town. Surprisingly, Boston's lost their last three games to Anaheim, going 1-1-2 across the last two seasons total.
In any event, it's a team Boston needs to be able to put two points up on the board against, especially with it being Anaheim's first game in the Eastern Time Zone this season.
After Anaheim, revenge will be on the mind. The Colorado Avalanche roll into TD Garden for a Saturday afternoon matinée exactly one week after dispatching the Bruins in Denver.
It's a great opportunity for the Bruins to show improvement and show they can hang with the best of the best in the NHL.
Then comes a 24-hour road trip to Ottawa for a Monday night game, against the 2-4-0 and free-falling Ottawa Senators.
The Senators will be without their captain, Brady Tkachuk, due to a thumb injury that required surgery. Ottawa's problem so far is while they've scored plenty, they can't keep the puck out of their net.
Through six games, they've allowed 30 goals, a whopping five goals against per game. It's a team, that Boston will need to flex scoring muscle against, one way or another. It's a divisional opponent struggling. Boston simply has to find a way to win that type of game.
24 hours later, the Bruins host the New York Islanders, a team that's been rather inconsistent. Like Ottawa, they've allowed a lot of goals (19 goals against in five games), but play a speed-based game.
A lot of these teams Boston will face, specifically the Avalanche, Senators, and Islanders, will continue to test Sturm's system of rock-solid defense and a counter-punching offense.
If the system holds up, which it's shown signs of doing already, then this could be a season-defining turnaround. If it doesn't and Boston's latest woes continue, it'll be easy to turn and look at this stretch of games where things started to really go south.
After the Islanders, the Bruins round out their home stand with games against the Buffalo Sabres and Carolina Hurricanes.
Buffalo, as always, does not look like a very good team, but they're still dangerous with the elite players they do have. Buffalo's very weak down the middle, something the Bruins need to exploit when the time comes.
As for the Hurricanes, well they've looked to be an absolute juggernaut all-around, so that game will be another major litmus test, especially as the stretch of home games end.
After the Carolina game, Boston plays 8 of 11 on the road, including a three-game trip to California. Two of their home games during that stretch come against the Toronto Maple Leafs and those same Hurricanes, very far from easy games.
The Bruins have a workable schedule before a taxing, travel-heavy November schedule begins.
Of their next seven opponents, only two of those teams are above .500 (Carolina and Colorado).
This losing streak won't last forever. The faster Boston turns it around, the faster they can potentially stack points and really get into a groove.