Brutal loss to Oilers a painful reminder Bruins aren’t a contender

Brutal loss to Oilers a painful reminder Bruins aren’t a contender originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

The Boston Bruins won a playoff series last season for the first time since 2021, and after spending more than $140 million in new contracts during the offseason to re-sign players and acquire new ones, expectations were that the Original Six franchise would take the next step and make a deep postseason run in 2025.

Fast forward to the halfway point of the campaign and not only is it painfully obvious the Bruins aren’t a real contender in the Eastern Conference, the idea of this team missing the playoffs is not crazy at all.

The latest reminder that this Bruins team is average at best came Tuesday night at TD Garden against the defending Western Conference champion Edmonton Oilers.

Everyone already knew the Oilers were a better team than the Bruins, but it was striking to see just how wide the gap is between Boston and the NHL’s top teams. The Oilers dominated the game in every facet and handed the B’s an embarrassing 4-0 loss, extending Boston’s losing streak to five games (0-4-1). It was so bad at the Garden that a “Fire (Don) Sweeney” chant broke out in the third period.

“They were certainly playing at a higher level than we were right from the drop of the puck,” Bruins interim head coach Joe Sacco told reporters postgame. “They won the majority of races to pucks. they were quicker to pucks, they won more one-on-one battles. We pretty much got what we deserved here tonight because of the way we played.”

Despite leading most of the game, the Oilers kept attacking and the Bruins couldn’t slow down the onslaught. Edmonton had a 61-46 edge in shot attempts, a 31-21 lead in shots on net, a 33-24 advantage in scoring chances and a 13-8 margin in high-danger chances at even strength, per Natural Stat Trick.

One of those high-danger chances was a breakaway for Connor McDavid — the best player on the planet. These mistakes just can’t happen.

Bruins center Elias Lindholm didn’t sugarcoat the result when speaking to reporters postgame.

“A lot of disappointment. Embarrassed. Frustrating. A lot of things,” Lindholm said.

The Bruins are in a playoff spot as the third-place team in the Atlantic Division. But the only reason they’re in that spot is they’ve played three, four or five more games than most of the other East teams. Boston is eighth in points percentage (.523) in the conference. Once the rest of the teams behind the Bruins catch up in games played, Boston could easily find itself outside of the playoff race.

But even if the Bruins make the playoffs — and there’s a real possibility they don’t — there’s no reason to think they will win a round, much less make a run.

For starters, Jeremy Swayman has been one of the most disappointing goalies in the league. It didn’t help that he didn’t get reps in training camp and the preseason, and the team in front of him isn’t playing well, but his performance has been way below expectations. The Bruins need him to be a top 10 goalie — which he’s been for almost all of his career — but he’s been a lower-tier netminder so far with a .893 save percentage and a 2.92 GAA. His minus-6.7 goals saved above expected rank 80th out of 90 qualifying goalies, per MoneyPuck.

The offense as a whole has been unproductive and inconsistent. The Bruins are the fourth-lowest scoring team with 2.58 goals per game, and their power play ranks 31st out of 32 teams with a 12.4 percent success rate. At this point, what’s there to lose by calling up some of the top prospects in Providence? Why not give Matthew Poitras, Fabian Lysell and Georgii Merkulov a real look at the NHL level? They can’t be any worse offensively than many of the forwards in Boston right now.

But the most worrying trend has been the Bruins’ defense of late. In the last seven games, at even strength, the B’s have given up the second-most shot attempts, the second-most shots on net, the second-most scoring chances, the most high-danger chances and the second-most goals.

The Bruins have a lot of talent, but their lack of scoring depth and poor goaltending is too much to overcome. It’s possible the Bruins could turn things around, but that would require dramatic improvement from many players, and it’s hard to see that happening given how the first 43 games have unfolded.

Making matters worse for the Bruins is this losing streak could easily extend several more games. Boston’s upcoming schedule is absolutely brutal. The next three games are against the Lightning, Panthers and then the Lightning again.

If the Bruins don’t show some urgency ASAP, the season could start to slip away.