Brad Marchand Addresses Bruins’ Losing Streak, Process For Moving Forward

The Boston Bruins are in the midst of a three-game losing skid that has them searching for their identity.

After surrendering five goals in the loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Monday night, Brad Marchand pinpointed the area of improvement the Bruins need to focus on.

“I think we got a little too loose defensively,” Marchand said on NESN’s postgame coverage. “Our biggest problem this year is we just give up too many odd-man rushes and that was a big problem again. You can’t expect to give up three and four breakaways a night and multiple two-on-ones and expect to win games. We need to be much tighter over the ice defensively.”

After playing five games in eight days, the Bruins will finally have a stretch at home where they can settle in and practice at Warrior Ice Arena on Wednesday before their tilt against the San Jose Sharks on Thursday.

“We’ve been loose. Missing coverage kind of everywhere on the ice,” Marchand said. “It’s gotta be a little bit more dialed in certain areas and that’ll help with a little bit more practice. We haven’t had a ton of practice. We go over it on video and try to talk about it but we need some reps at it and we’ll work on that on Wednesday and hopefully be better on Thursday.”

Given the team’s early success, Marchand said the key for the players moving forward is to not dwell on the games behind them and to focus on the next matchup.

“You want to learn from it,” Marchand said. “But, in this game, you can’t get caught up in the past. Always looking forward to the next day and getting better. That’s something we have an opportunity to do on Wednesday.”

Marchand added: “The biggest thing is always you want to work your way out of any kind of down spell. …. It’s good to put our heads down and work our way out of it.”

The Boston captain said the Bruins need to trust each other to do their jobs on the ice and give it their all.

“You can’t have any weak links in this league,” he said. “There’s so much parity (in the league) you see it every night. The last-place team can win any night. You just have to be dialed in on your details and the biggest thing for our group is we always work. That’s where it starts for us and we got to get back to that.”