BOSTON \u2014 The odds remain practically airtight that the Boston Bruins will make the playoffs. This could happen in short order. They are in if the New Jersey Devils beat the Detroit Red Wings in regulation Saturday night.<\/p>\n
That did not make them feel better after Saturday\u2019s 2-1 home loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning.<\/p>\n
Any kind of win would have allowed the Bruins to clinch a postseason spot on their own merit. It would have been a nice feeling considering how hard they have worked to put themselves in this position.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are in a good spot,\u201d David Pastrnak said. \u201cWe put ourselves in a hole here. At the same time, we\u2019ve lost five in a row. We have to get our game back. Time is ticking. Good news is we are back at it tomorrow. We know we are getting better as a group. We are a confident group. We need to find it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Bruins have not played poorly in their last five games. They took a 1-0 lead into Saturday\u2019s third period. They did the same thing last week against the same opponent. They lost a coin-flip game against the Philadelphia Flyers in overtime on April 5. Two days later, they rallied against the Carolina Hurricanes to score an overtime point.<\/p>\n
But the results are the results: five games, two points, zero wins. Tire-spinning going into the playoffs is not a good way to go about your business.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a lot of excitement today,\u201d coach Marco Sturm said of possibly clinching at home. \u201cWe were hoping for a big day here in Boston. Unfortunately, it didn\u2019t happen. We\u2019ve got to look at the positives. The positive is we still have two games left. It\u2019s still in our control. We\u2019re going to get back at it tomorrow. We\u2019ve done it before in Columbus, and we\u2019ve got to do it again. That should be our mindset.\u201d<\/p>\n
Regardless of the Devils-Red Wings outcome, the Bruins were focused on beating the Columbus Blue Jackets on Sunday. Not only would it guarantee postseason advancement, but it would also help the Bruins feel better about their game heading into Round 1. They have yet to win in April.<\/p>\n
The Blue Jackets took it to the Bruins early on March 29, grabbing a 3-0 lead. Fights by Tanner Jeannot and Mark Kastelic helped the Bruins turn the game around and score a 4-3 shootout win.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got absolutely dominated in the first period. It took us a long time to get it back,\u201d Sturm said. \u201cWe can\u2019t do that tomorrow. That\u2019s something I\u2019m going to address for sure. Forget about getting into the playoffs or not. We\u2019re going to take it period by period. We want to build on a lot of things we did good today. We\u2019ve just got to find a way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Topping the list of productive outcomes was another Morgan Geekie goal. He has scored four goals in the last two games. His 17-game goal-scoring slump is history. He is feeling good about his touch, which will be needed in the first round.<\/p>\n
On his goal, Geekie received an outlet pass from Charlie McAvoy and slipped behind the Lightning. As soon as he settled the puck, Geekie ripped a wrister over Andrei Vasilevskiy\u2019s glove without a single deke.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat breakaway says it all,\u201d Sturm said. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t even think. He just shoots and it goes in the net. It\u2019s nice to see him back smiling and feeling confident.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of Geekie\u2019s issues during his downturn was his positioning. His shot is good enough to beat goalies from exterior ice. But he does his best work between the dots. His hat trick against Carolina was proof: a ripper from the slot, a blast from the top of the crease, a down-low deflection. Geekie can be lethal in high-danger ice.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re all in the slot,\u201d Sturm said of Geekie\u2019s three-goal explosion. \u201cThey\u2019re all in that net-front slot area where he can be very dangerous because of his shot and ability to tip pucks. If I ever have a meeting again, and I will, I\u2019ll probably show him those three goals. Because that\u2019s an area he has to go to. He has to recognize that\u2019s how he gets out of things when he is in a slump.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s loss may convince Sturm to defer James Hagens\u2019 NHL debut until after the Bruins clinch. Mikey Eyssimont was noticeable as the No. 3 left wing next to Fraser Minten and Marat Khusnutdinov.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It may also give Sturm reason to go back to Jeremy Swayman on Sunday. The No. 1 goalie was in net for back-to-back wins against the Minnesota Wild and the Blue Jackets last month. Swayman is the No. 1 reason the Bruins are about to make the playoffs. This could be the time for the ace to lock things up for his team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOSTON \u2014 The odds remain practically airtight that the Boston Bruins will make the playoffs. This could happen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":600904,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,5789,575,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-600903","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-boston-bruins","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=600903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/600903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/600904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=600903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=600903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=600903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}