The Bruins have dominated their Southeast Division opponents over the past two seasons. However, on Monday night, the Tampa Bay Lightning came out turbo-charged and ready. They set the tone early in the game with timely hits on Bruins players and scored in the first to take an early — and ultimately insurmountable — lead. The Black and Gold, on the other hand, showed up for 20 minutes, and that was it.
"We played one period," said Bruins center Marc Savard. "It was almost enough. But in this league, most nights, it's not going to be enough."
Correction: In this league, all nights it’s not going to be enough. And the Bruins know that. The majority of the Bruins' struggles this season have come from lack of goal scoring and from mental lapses during games. When the Bruins fail to play the full three periods of a hockey game, they will get in trouble every time.
Tampa Bay outshot Boston 23-7 in the second period alone. This was after the B’s went into the locker room for the second consecutive night down 1-0 on the road. On Sunday, they redeemed themselves with a solid final two periods of play along with the game-tying and go-ahead goal. Monday night was a different story.
Apparently, whatever words were said in the Bruins locker room didn’t work this time. The Bruins were outplayed, and it’s not the first time this season that’s happened.
"Those are all excuses," said Shawn Thornton after Monday’s loss. "Yeah, there were some tough situations out there, with calls and stuff. But that goes both ways and evens up in the course of a season. That’s all excuses. You’ve just got to man up, show up for work. It’s two hours. Show up to work. That’s it."
A clearly frustrated Thornton echoed those exact thoughts only a few weeks ago on Dec. 14, when he joined me for Bruins Overtime Live at the TD Garden after the Bruins' 3-1 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers.
Inconsistency is haunting the Bruins. They were enjoying a three-game win streak before the brakes were quickly applied, courtesy of the Lightning. Now it’s up to the Bruins to get back in the fast lane.
And what better opponent than the Atlanta Thrashers, who lost to Boston exactly one week ago at the same venue at which they’ll be skating on Wednesday night?
Hopefully the B’s find a way to win. It’s going to take a full three periods to beat Ilya Kovalchuk and the Thrashers.
