Marco Sturm called his Bruins "very flat" after Thursday's loss to Montreal, and now the red-hot Wild arrive Saturday.
The 5-2 defeat on Homecoming night did real damage. The Canadiens moved ahead of Boston in the Atlantic, and the room didn't hide from it afterward.
Sturm didn't dodge, according to Jack Studley. Boston's coach said he hopes it's "a good lesson" and that he "totally" agrees the team was "very flat" in a rivalry game at home.
Pastrnak went even further, calling the start "unacceptable." He also laid out how the night got away from them once the mistakes started piling up.
Frederic Brunet kept it short: "we got to be better." Jeremy Swayman said a little adversity isn't a bad thing, which is one way to look at a night that ended with him pulled and Michael DiPietro finishing in net. We covered the goalie's reaction in Jeremy Swayman's glare at Marco Sturm on Thursday night.
A Bruins podcast went through the same list of problems: a slow start, defensive breakdowns, a struggling power play and another night asking too much of Swayman.
Can the Bruins fix this against the Wild?
They have the record to believe it. Boston is 13-5-1 and sits third in the Atlantic, with an 8-2-0 mark at home that should help on Saturday.
But the opponent is the problem. Minnesota is 8-0-2 over its last 10 and just got a Matt Boldy hat trick in a 5-2 win in Toronto.
The Wild are second in the NHL at 14-3-4, and they will pounce on the same defensive breakdowns Montreal did. Pastrnak's own account of how a mistake turns into 2-0 and then 4-0 is the exact scenario Boston must avoid at puck drop.
Slow starts are the easiest thing to fix with words and the hardest to fix on the ice. Sturm has said what he wanted to say, and the room agreed with him. Saturday will show whether any of it carried over to the ice.
This article was written with the help of artificial intelligence, based on public reports and official sources.
How will the Bruins respond against the Wild on Saturday?
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