Bruins Must Fix Sloppy Play Before Blackhawks Arrive Saturday

Eric Canha-Imagn ImagesThis Saturday, October 31, TD Garden will see the Chicago Blackhawks (4-9) face the Boston Bruins (9-4-1) in a game starting at 1 p.m. ET. Fans can catch the action on ESPN+ according to Fox Sports 1070. Head coach Marco Sturm knows his team cannot afford to keep letting leads slip away after recent road losses.Sloppy Habits Cost BostonSturm did not mince words after the team dropped both games on a recent road trip. “Even the games we won lately, in the end, we were just sloppy, I would say,” Sturm said in comments reported by The Lufkin Daily News. He admitted that this lack of detail finally caught up to them. The numbers back him up, as the Bruins let early leads vanish against the Hurricanes and Blues. Despite a 32-18 shot advantage, they fell 4-1 to the St. Louis Blues on Thursday.Forward Casey Mittelstadt insists the locker room has the confidence to fix these issues. “I don’t think it’s time to panic or anything,” Mittelstadt said, per The Lufkin Daily News. He believes the team has enough swagger to regroup at home. The Bruins sit atop the Atlantic Division, but that spot feels shaky if they keep playing with such loose ends. A 12-game home stretch starts now, and the margin for error has shrunk.Chicago Struggles on the RoadThe Blackhawks are in a deeper hole, having lost four of their last five games. They are currently the only NHL team without a road win, sitting at 0-5-0 away from Chicago. Connor Bedard scored the only goal in their 4-1 loss to Detroit on Thursday. Ian Cole, the Chicago defenseman, noted the need for better consistency. “You can use whatever vernacular you want to describe it, but ultimately we’ve got to find a level of consistency that we can roll out for 60 minutes,” Cole said.Chicago’s offense is sputtering badly compared to Boston’s. The Blackhawks rank 31st in goals scored with just 2.08 per game, while the Bruins rank 9th with 3.57. Patrick Kane has eight points this season, and Bedard has seven, but the team lacks the depth to sustain pressure. Ryan Ellis is out for the season with a back injury, leaving the defense thin. This absence hurts a group that already allows 3.69 goals per game, ranking 29th in the league.Keys to Saturday’s WinBoston’s defense has been a bright spot, allowing only 2.29 goals per game to rank 2nd in the league. Jeremy Swayman has posted a .912 save percentage in 11 games played. The Bruins need to lean on this strength while their offense, led by David Pastrnak’s 18 points, stays sharp. Pastrnak emphasized the need to keep improving after every win. “The biggest takeaway is when we are winning, we flip the page, we come to work the next day and get better,” he told reporters. If they stay sloppy, even a weak opponent like Chicago could cause problems. The team has 19 points and sits second in the Eastern Conference, but that standing means nothing if they lose focus. Sturm said the team just needed to move on and execute for a full 60 minutes.