Having already handed the slumping Tampa Bay Lightning a 4-0 thrashing on March 9, the Bruins looked steady during the first period. While he conceded a sloppy goal, the team quickly equalized. And then the second period happened. Boston crumbled like a house of cards under the Lightning’s onslaught. Interim head coach Joe Sacco explained what went wrong in the scoreless second period of their humbling defeat.

Speaking to reporters after the loss, the interim head coach revealed how defensive mistakes once again sank Boston’s boat. “I thought that coming out of our defensive zone coverage, we turned the puck over too much,” said Joe Sacco. “We didn’t have proper support for each other out there on the ice,”added the 56-year-old. So when the second period came around, they got bogged down.

The Boston Bruins couldn’t capitalize, even when they did manage to stave off the pressure momentarily. Unable to come out of their defensive zone “clean and hard,” the Bruins simply couldn’t execute whatever strategy they had in mind. When they did answer back with another goal in the third period, Lightning struck twice, taking their final tally to 6 goals.

Sacco also had no qualms in admitting the Tampa Bay Lightning just played better in every aspect.“They were just a better team tonight from start to finish… They were just quicker to pucks than we were, they won more one-on-one battles,” said Sacco. And once again, Jeremy Swayman wasn’t particularly impressive in front of the goal.

Nothing is working for the Boston Bruins

Besides defensive lapses and a limping offense, goalie Jeremy Swayman fell below a .900 sv % for the second game in a row. The Bruins’ goalie has been a hit-and-miss since finally signing an extension after contract standoffs that caused him to miss a training camp last year. Unfortunately, it’s been more misses than hits for the goalkeeper in recent games.

The Boston Bruins star conceded four out of the 38 shots on target, ending the match with a .895 sv %. While that is much better than the four goals he conceded against the Ottawa Senators in the first period alone, it’s not a stellar performance either. So it seems that despite making massive changes like letting go of Brad Marchand, the Bruins continue to struggle.