The Bruins, just as quickly as they finished up a seven-game winning trip, have hit a tailspin, with the lowest of low points coming Saturday night in a 5-2 loss to the Maple Leafs, a loss that means the Bruins have only one win in their last seven games. But while the team is running out of time to get things in line before the playoffs, could this stretch of poor hockey be beneficial for the B's?
The obvious retort to a stretch this poor just before the playoffs is that you can get it out of your system. The Bruins can't struggle much more than they are right now, but it's much better to be struggling for a week or two in March than in May. We found that out last year.
Also, you have to take into account that this team is vastly different today than it was at the beginning of February. The team made a handful of roster moves in February, and they have had to adapt and build some chemistry. Those things can take time. Maybe this rough stretch is just proof of that. This is the first time that the Bruins have had adversity since making all of those deals, as Tomas Kaberle's first game with the B's just so happened to be the first game of the seven-game winning streak.
Maybe the Bruins got a little bit too comfortable after that impressive winning streak. While they may not be as bad as they're playing right now, they probably weren't as good as they were playing then, either. But now, facing adversity, and returning home to face an upstart Devils team (with the Canadiens looming), maybe that's exactly what they need.
Claude Julien seems to think so, as he admitted as much on Monday.
"You've got to work your way out of it," Julien said. "You hope at the end of the day or the end of the year you can look back and say that adversity made us a better hockey club. But in order to be able to do that, you have to get the results, and that's what we need to get right now — the results."
If this skid is going to benefit the Bruins in the long run, they're going to have to start getting those results very soon.
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