Bruins hitting tough road, injury stretch

But the big issue is how the injuries, and the need to compete for wins and losses, is going to maximize the strain on Boston’s best players in the short term. Charlie McAvoy is averaging over 29 minutes of ice time in the last two losses, and Hampus Lindholm is averaging over 26 minutes of ice time in those games while David Pastrnak played a whopping 27:11 in the overtime defeat to Arizona.

Playing Boston’s best players that much while trying to salvage points on a Tuesday night in January against Arizona will begin to have long term implications if Boston goes to that well too often.

Part of the issue is some of Boston’s younger players and complimentary pieces aren’t doing enough. Mason Lohrei clocked in with just 13:05 of ice time and had a key mistake early in the third period when he fumbled a puck at the point that eventually turned into a Matias Maccelli goal after Lawson Crouse rushed it up the ice. Johnny Beecher finished with just 9:26 of ice time and didn’t register close to as much as fourth line mates Jesper Boqvist and Danton Heinen did in the contest.

Until the Boston Bruins can find some greater balance in their lineup, cracks are going to show in Boston’s overall game when the schedule gets too heavy or the travel becomes too cumbersome for the hockey club. To their credit, though, the B’s players weren’t look at their circumstances as excuses to be made for losing hockey games, be they in overtime or in regulation.

“We're not a team that makes excuses, we know every game you’ve got to find ways to come in and play, I think everyone here is professional and does that,” said Lindholm. “That's not really something we can blame on.”

Certainly there will be no blaming anything on excuses like injuries or difficult travel stretches on the NHL schedule, but it’s just reality right now for the Black and Gold. They are in a dog day portion of the regular season schedule where there will be spates of winning streaks and losing streaks based on the circumstances during that stretch of time, and that’s just the normal ebb and flow of an 82-game hockey campaign.

The challenge becomes navigating that while maintaining Stanley Cup playoff position, righting the ship when need be and trying to keep as much in the fuel tank as realistically possible for the postseason battles still far ahead.

It won’t be easy for the Boston Bruins as these last two road battles have attested, but the bright side is that it will make them a more battle-hardened hockey team when the time comes a few months from now.