Elizabeth Muirhead ‘20
Contributing Writer
On Monday, Oct. 9, Boston geared up for two afternoon games, a high stakes baseball game and a start-of-the-season hockey game.
The Red Sox had a playoff game against the Houston Astros. They were trailing the Astros in their playoff series 2-1. A win would extend the series to a fifth and final game; a loss would knock them out.
The Celtics,with 2 losses and 1 win in the books, have already seen Gordon Hayward suffer a major injury that will keep him on the bench and traded many of their key players from last season including Avery Bradley and Isaiah Thomas.
The Bruins are also at the start of their season, and they are looking for a turn in Boston’s luck. Winning early games would set a tone for the season.
The Sox lost a close 5-4 game, the Celtics narrowly lost 2 games against the Cavaliers and Bucks and the Bruins were smashed by Colorado in a blowout, 4-0 loss, treating Boston fans to back-to-back loses.
While the Red Sox are done until the spring, there’s a lot to learn from the Bruins losses so far. The start of their season has been disappointing and slow. Regular season games began at the start of October. Boston has lost four of their seven games and, on ESPN.com they’re currently ranked fifth out of the eight teams in the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference.
After winning their first regular season game against the Nashville Predators, the Bruins went on to lose their next two games. They won their following game, and then went on to lose two of their next three. On Saturday, Oct. 21, they faced an exceptionally excruciating loss in overtime against the Buffalo Sabers.
After scoring the first three goals, the game looked promising for the Bruins. Unfortunately, their skating and positioning became frantic as they gradually blew their three-goal lead. Late in the second period, Boston’s defense began to collapse. Buffalo’s defense managed to score from the point because all of the Boston forwards had crumpled toward the net, leaving lots of time and space for a scoring opportunity.
The Bruins let up another goal late in the third with frantic, misdirected positioning. Buffalo managed to tie the game up with only two minutes and eight seconds left in the third period as the Bruins floundered in front of the net, allowing a slow, loose puck to bobble in. But the most stinging and disappointing part for Boston was when they lost in overtime. On a backhanded shot, Buffalo managed to put a fifth and final puck in the back of the net, making the final score 5-4 Buffalo.
Reflecting on the disappointing performance, in an interview with MassLive, Boston’s Brad Marchand, who scored two of the four goals, said, “It’s tough …You know, those are the games you can’t lose. We obviously didn’t do the job there in the third and close it out, but we’re going to have to regroup and work on our game and be better for the next one.”
Fortunately, the season is still young; the Bruins will have plenty of opportunities to redeem themselves. They have upcoming games against the San Jose Sharks and the Los Angeles Kings. Hopefully they’ll fare a little better in the West.
