Not even a trip to Long Island could cure the Bruins of what ails them this time.
Boston's previous visit to the Nassau Coliseum produced an offensive breakthrough when they beat the Islanders 6-3 on Feb. 17 to snap a three-game losing streak and kick-start a season-best seven-game winning streak.
But their return on Friday under similar circumstances produced far different results. This time the Bruins couldn't hold on to their early lead as the Islanders rallied with four unanswered goals for a 4-2 win that pushes Boston's winless skid to a season-high four games.
The Bruins led 2-0 before a late second-period interference penalty by Brad Marchand gave New York a power play, which Matt Moulson converted with two seconds left in the period. That was the turning point in the game, with the Isles maintaining the momentum with three more goals in the third.
The third period is usually the Bruins' domain. They entered the night having outscored opponents 80-46 in the final frame and had been 25-0-1 when leading after two periods.
The Islanders had only been 3-21-3 when trailing after two and had been outscored 73-54 in the third, but they bucked all those trends as Michael Grabner tied it 1:28 into the third on a turnaround shot from the right slot. Jack Hillen then scored the winner with a point shot that deflected in off Bruins defenseman Dennis Seidenberg, but Bruins coach Claude Julien saw things slipping away even before that goal.
"I think it broke down even before they took the lead," Julien said. "I didn't think we were a very smart hockey club tonight at all. We didn't respect them and we didn't respect the game plan well enough. They've got good speed. They've got good transition and we were caught giving up 3-on-2s, 4-on-2s. We seemed content tonight to play the run-and-gun game and that came back to haunt us and hurt us."
Tim Thomas bailed the Bruins out of a lot of those breakdowns early with some big saves, but even he couldn't stop everything with the Islanders throwing 41 shots at him.
"We've been rolling along pretty good most of this year," Thomas said. "There's been the short time periods where we've taken a step back. I think we're in one of those spots again and it's time to turn it around."
That will entail rediscovering the sound defensive system that had been Boston's trademark before this recent slide. It also means finding some more consistency on offense, where only the top line of David Krejci, Milan Lucic and Nathan Horton has been producing of late.
That trio combined for Boston's first goal as Horton scored his 20th of the season. Krejci also assisted on the other goal, which Zdeno Chara scored to break a power-play drought that had lasted more than eight games.
The power play still is far from fixed. Boston was just 1 for 4 on Friday, with the lone goal coming on a two-man advantage. The Bruins are still just 1 for 23 over the last nine games and 2 for 28 since Tomas Kaberle was added with the goal of actually improving the power play.
The Bruins haven't scored more than three goals in a game in any of their last nine games. They survived that for a while with solid defense and strong goaltending, but Boston has now given up four goals in each of their last three games and the breakdowns leading to those scores are the most disconcerting part of their current slump.
"We were up two-nothing and we just gave the game up out of our hands," Seidenberg said. "We just didn't play well enough defensively to win tonight. We have to get better at that killer instinct."
Shutting teams down, especially once they had pulled ahead in a game, had been the hallmark of this Bruins team. They need to reestablish that identity and regain that focus to pull out of this tailspin before it's too late.
"I think we have to start refocusing on what we are as a team," Julien said. "We've got an identity. When we play a certain way we're a very efficient hockey club, and I think lately we haven't been doing that. We've gotten away from our game and that's what's hurting us right now."
