NHL Holiday Break Couldn’t Come At Better Time For Bruins

The Boston Bruins’ loss to the Minnesota Wild on Saturday marked their fourth straight, which is their longest streak since August 2020.

If that sounds funky, it’s because it happens to be a complete anomaly.

It was not only unprecedented for a team to go that long without losing that many in a row, but those games were played in August because we were in the middle of a pandemic. The Bruins dropped the final four games of the 2020 Eastern Conference semifinals to the Tampa Bay Lightning in the NHL bubble, and haven’t lost that many in a row since.

Well, until now.

The Bruins went 1,209 days since losing that many games consecutively, but Saturday’s defeat has them in the position they haven’t been in for more than three years. They’ve got a break coming, though.

The NHL schedules a three-day holiday break every season, with no regular season games played on either Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. That means Boston will have a few days off to get their minds right in hopes of snapping the losing streak.

“It’ll give us an opportunity to step away from the game and have some fun with our families,” Bruins captain Brad Marchand said, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “We’ll get our minds off the game, and when things aren’t going your way it’s good to escape and come back with a fresh mind and get excited about playing again.”

It’s not the end of the world, but the Bruins certainly aren’t used to losing like this. They’re coming off of a historic regular season, so they’ll take whatever they can to get right.

“It’s a good time to go spend some time with your family,” Jim Montgomery said postgame. “It’s a great time of the year, Santa’s showing up for everybody so we’re going to enjoy the time with our family and get back to work against Buffalo on (Dec. 27).”