Well, leave it to the Bruins to lay an egg in what should be an easy spot. After largely outplaying a good Nashville team last Thursday and getting the win, the Bs managed to drop both games this season to the official cellar dwellers of the league in the Colorado Avalanche. They were outscored 10-3 including a shutout, and made guys like Sven Andrighetto (3 G, 1 A) and Nail Yakupov (3 G, 1 A) look like Hall of Famers.

Both in the Columbus Day matinee, and in Wednesday Night’s game the whole team looked lethargic. Tuukka Rask seemed uninterested, and it resulted in him getting yanked after two periods in Denver (I would have pulled him after the first in Boston by the way). There were too many careless turnovers and sloppy passes throughout all three zones, although I will say we looked the best (if there is a “best”) in the attacking zone.

Some of the rookie inexperience was starting to show. Charlie McAvoy was a primary contributor to the aforementioned sloppy turnovers, but he did seem to make a few physical plays along the boards that I wasn’t expecting. Up front was more of the same lackluster play. All of the rookies play with effort and speed, it just isn’t translating to quality scoring chances all the time.

The Bruins desperately need to get some veteran presence back on the forward lines. I like to scrutinize David Krejci just as much as the next guy, but he isn’t getting a whole lot of help right now. When Riley Nash is centering the second line, there’s a problem. Hopefully Patrice Bergeron will be healthy enough to play and get back in the lineup this weekend; I will definitely be playing close attention to that as all of you should as well.

I won’t beat a dead horse anymore here, but if this team can’t figure out how to take care of the puck a little better and frankly just play with more intensity, this could end up being a very long season. The Bruins are taking on two teams this weekend with less talent than them, that they should beat, but I should probably temper my expectations as both games are on the road within 24 hours of each other. Saturday night is against a winless Arizona team that’s hungry for a home win and has decent goaltending, and Sunday evening will be a bout with the upstart Vegas Golden Knights who, despite being a little thin on talent, have come out of the gate hot this year thanks to timely goal scoring and the ability to rally around their hurting city; a couple of things this 2018 Bruins club has no familiarity with.

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