{"id":142944,"date":"2026-02-04T04:53:24","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T04:53:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/142944\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T04:53:24","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T04:53:24","slug":"bruins-only-have-themselves-to-blame-after-collapse-in-tampa-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/142944\/","title":{"rendered":"Bruins only have themselves to blame after collapse in Tampa"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBoston Bruins\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t“It’s just kind of looking ourselves in the mirror, I think. It’s been an issue all year.”<\/p>\n

\"Boston
\n\tJeremy Swayman and the Bruins came undone against the Lightning on Sunday. (AP Photo\/Chris O’Meara)\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBy Conor Ryan<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFebruary 3, 2026 | 8:49 AM\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

6 minutes to read<\/p>\n

COMMENTARY<\/p>\n

TAMPA \u2014 Amid all of the pageantry drummed up by Sunday\u2019s Stadium Series game at Raymond James Stadium, Bruins head coach Marco Sturm tried to put things in perspective.<\/p>\n

Skating in front of over 64,000 fans on a chilly night in Tampa represented a unique opportunity for Sturm\u2019s upstart team.<\/p>\n

But there was business to be done in what stood as one of Boston\u2019s most daunting tests of the season.<\/p>\n

An 11-2-1 record in January propelled Boston back into the playoff picture.<\/p>\n

One of the few teams sporting a better record over that stretch? The Lightning \u2014 who entered Sunday with a record of 16-1-1 in their last 18 games.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Under the bright lights of a football stadium, the Bruins had a prime opportunity to validate their status as a legitimate playoff threat amid a retool that\u2019s far ahead of schedule.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to share that tomorrow to my guys \u2014 to just try to stay focused as quickly as we can, because we play a really good hockey team over there,\u201d Sturm said Saturday afternoon. \u201cAnd also, we need the points. So we want to enjoy the moment. But also \u2014\u00a0we are here to get two points.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sentiment in Boston\u2019s room shifted quickly after Sunday\u2019s eventual 6-5 shootout loss to the Bolts.<\/a><\/p>\n

Yes, there were the pained reflections on letting a valuable point slip away \u2014 especially after holding a 5-1 lead midway through the second period.<\/p>\n

But it was tough to ignore Boston\u2019s incessant parade to the penalty box as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat hurts. It hurts a lot,\u201d Charlie McAvoy said postgame. \u201cThe way that we lost it is just brutal, spending half the game in the penalty box.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bruins largely took umbrage with the way the officials managed the second half of Sunday\u2019s primetime matchup.<\/p>\n

As guilty as the Bruins were of several infractions, the Lightning were handed seven-straight power-play bids from 9:07 in the second period through the end of a roller-coaster game.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a valid case to be made that a Bolts skater or two should have been sent to the penalty box amid that sustained stretch of chaos \u2014 with McAvoy in particular the recipient of some painful cross-checks near the crease.<\/p>\n

David Pastrnak was steamed about his game-winning tally getting called back in overtime<\/a> \u2014 with the star winger instead ushered to the box for a slash seconds after beating Andrei Vasilevskiy clean.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no clue what happened,\u201d Pastrnak said postgame. \u201cIt\u2019s a freakin\u2019 turnover, we\u2019ve got a 2-on-1, the referee has his arm up, he\u2019s letting me go, Sway\u2019s going to the bench, we finished the play, score a goal and all of a sudden I\u2019m in the penalty box. It\u2019s a joke. I don\u2019t understand.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never seen something like that. To me it was a joke. I don\u2019t care if that\u2019s a bad answer, but that\u2019s how I feel. It\u2019s weird. Score a goal and end up in the penalty box. Whatever. We gave them two points and that\u2019s what matters. Tough on us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bruins\u2019 frustrations were evident on a night where a lopsided victory quickly gave way to misery.<\/p>\n

But even when factoring in the discrepancy of calls down the stretch, the fact of the matter is that the Bruins shouldn\u2019t have even been in a position where they needed to hold on for dear life in hopes of scrapping together at least a point.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Following a season-long trend of strong play getting undercut by poor discipline, the Bruins can only look themselves in the mirror for what played out on Sunday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt always comes back to us,\u201d Sturm said. \u201cAnd if you give a guy like [Nikita] Kucherov [four points on Sunday] 10 minutes on the power play? You know you did something wrong. So\u00a0that\u2019s on us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Look no further than the fracas that spilled out in the second period \u2014beyond a goalie scrap between Jeremy Swayman and Vasilevskiy.<\/a><\/p>\n

Even taking out Swayman\u2019s two penalties for his bout with Vasilevskiy, the Bruins were still whistled for six more penalties through the final 11 minutes of the second period.<\/p>\n

The total damage? Two roughing calls against McAvoy, a roughing call against Mark Kastelic after Oliver Bjorkstrand struck on the power play, a delay of game against Swayman, an interference call against Tanner Jeannot, and a penalty against Sean Kuraly for closing his hand over a puck.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kucherov and the Lightning\u2019s power play smelled blood in the water.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat just killed the game, really,\u201d McAvoy said of those penalties. \u201cIt was a good game, I think, before that. And then we\u2019re in the box for that whole period. Obviously, the goalie fight was fun, and that was really cool for Sway and us.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it was like, after that, we just kept taking penalties. We had complete control of the game. And then you give a team with that kind of power play a 5-on-3 for \u2014 I don\u2019t even know how long it was \u2014 like, you\u2019re just asking for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the time both teams made it back into their respective dressing rooms at the end of the second, a 5-1 Bruins lead had been trimmed to 5-4 \u2014 with a pair of 5-on-3 tallies putting Boston on the brink of collapse.<\/p>\n

Kucherov did the honors with an equalizer in the third period, while Jake Guentzel capped off Tampa\u2019s comeback by scoring the lone goal in the shootout.<\/p>\n

Leaving Tampa with at least one point is usually a silver lining drawn out of bouts with the Bolts.<\/p>\n

But not on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could complain all day and night about the calls that were made,\u201d Morgan Geekie said. \u201cBut at the end of the day, there weren\u2019t too many of them that weren\u2019t penalties. And it\u2019s just unfortunate that we kept putting ourselves in the box knowing what they have on the other side when it comes to special teams.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, yeah, it\u2019s just kind of looking ourselves in the mirror, I think. It\u2019s been an issue all year. So it\u2019s not like it\u2019s a one-off thing, so just try to pick up on that and forget about it and move on to Florida.<\/p>\n

With just 26 games left on the regular-season docket, there\u2019s a lot to like about how the Bruins have played this year.<\/p>\n

As was the case on Sunday, the Bruins have shown themselves to be a competitive group at 5-on-5 play \u2014 especially when it comes to generating offense (125 goals, tied for third in the NHL).\u00a0<\/p>\n

A fourth-ranked power play (26.9 percent) has played a key role in Boston\u2019s surge up the standings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the Bruins\u2019 issues with staying out of the box have often been their undoing, especially with Boston\u2019s PK now taking on water (77.0 percent, 27th in NHL). It doesn\u2019t help that Boston\u2019s laboring shorthanded crew keeps getting put on the ropes by a roster that leads the NHL in penalty minutes per game (13.4).\u00a0<\/p>\n

That poor discipline will need to be corrected if the Bruins intend on actually playing meaningful hockey in April and beyond.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a perfect world, Sunday\u2019s showdown with the Bolts should have been a statement game for Sturm and the Bruins.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Instead it served as a reminder that the Bruins still have plenty of work to do in the coming weeks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think they were better than us today, hockey-wise, but they were better than us after the whistle,\u201d Sturm said of Tampa. \u201cThey\u2019re not tougher than us, but they did a good job. And we just lost our composure a little bit, and cost us, unfortunately, a point.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo again, that\u2019s something we have to learn. That is a veteran group over there. They\u2019ve been through it a lot of times, and we [haven\u2019t]. So hopefully we learned something today.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\"Profile\t<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Conor Ryan is a staff writer covering the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox for Boston.com, a role he has held since 2023.<\/p>\n

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