from Fluto Shinzawa of the Boston Globe,

When they’re humming, the Bruins are a checking team that scores. Lately, they have done neither.

“We can’t give up five goals a game,” said coach Claude Julien. “That takes away our opportunities to win those. When we take care of our own end, the rest usually takes care of itself.”

The Bruins have been a metal-on-metal team for the last two weeks. They got a lucky 3-1 result in Ottawa March 10 when the Senators dominated the pace of the final 40 minutes. Their good fortune continued two nights later in a 3-2 home win over the Lightning. In the second period, they gave Tampa chance after chance.

The wins disguised what was going on. The Bruins were playing with fire. Their shots, especially on the power play, were finding the back of the net. Rask was spectacular under assault.

High shooting and save percentages are difficult to sustain. It was only a matter of time until Rask became mortal, especially under the heaviest workload of his career.

The wheels have since fallen off. In their wins, the Senators and Lightning maximized their speed and skill against the plodding Bruins. They faced little resistance flying over the blue line because of the Bruins’ turnovers, sloppiness in the neutral zone, and slack gaps between the defensemen and forwards. Because of how fiercely they attacked, both clubs chewed up the scrambling Bruins in front of the net. This season, this has been a familiar sight for Rask.

“One mistake always leads to another,” Rask said. “At some point, that ends up costing us a goal. It’s the sum of a lot of things.”

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