Boston Bruins: 3 takeaways from blowout loss to Canucks

The Boston Bruins kicked off their longest road trip of the season in the worst of ways.

If you allow 6 goals there is a pretty good chance you aren’t going to win. Then add a 4 goal deficit at the end of the first and you might as well wave the white flag. The Boston Bruins were blown out by the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday night.

The obvious problem

What would that be? Oh yeah, the goaltending. It was a terrible night for Tuukka Rask in net. Rask gave up 4 goals on just 8 shots. He finished the first period, but would not return for the second.

Bruins fans thought that these performances were behind Rask. Nights like these simply can’t be happening. Rask was giving up juicy rebounds and making it easy for the Canucks forwards.

Anton Khudobin didn’t give up as many goals as Rask, but he wasn’t great either. He stopped 13 shots and made some good saves, but he also allowed some bad goals. Just like Rask, “Dobby” allowed goals because of his inability to secure the puck.

The entire night it appeared that the Bruins couldn’t buy a save if they wanted to.

No help from the defense

Now even though the goaltenders allowed some rough goals, some of the goals were the result of some terrible defense. It seemed that the Canucks could get by any player they wanted on Saturday night.

The third goal of the game was a result of Charlie McAvoy not being able to keep up with his man. McAvoy has been great all season but on Saturday even he was having a rough night. Then right after that Noel Acciari was trying to clear the puck out of the zone and it deflected off Sean Kuraly’s stick and into the net.

It was a rough night and head coach Bruce Cassidy was one of the first to admit it.

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"“Up there in Jersey [last Sunday] night, we were not good,” said Cassidy. “We gave up a lot of chances, but [Anton Khudobin] covered up for a lot of them and we got some breaks at the other end… it’s crept into our game. We saw it with Buffalo, we were loose giving up odd-man rushes.“We’ve got to nip it in the bud. And we’ll address it again with the guys. But at some point, it falls on the group to say enough is enough. Hopefully that’s Monday afternoon [against Calgary].”"

The only bright spot

The only thing the Boston Bruins did well on Saturday night was shoot the puck.  The Bruins outshot the Canucks 45-23. Usually, that would mean you would win or at the best score a few goals, but Anders Nilsson was unstoppable. He stopped 44 shots in his first win in over two months.

The only Bruin able to score was Tim Schaller. Torey Krug fed Schaller with a beautiful pass and Schaller blasted a one-timer past Nilsson. It was Schaller’s 10th goal of the season. He has had a pretty good season for a guy on the fourth line.

Next: Top 5 Boston Bruins forwards of all-time

After the terrible output on Saturday, the Bruins look to rebound against the Calgary Flames on Monday.