What a difference a week makes.  

Last Saturday, the Bruins were gearing up for a bout with the Penguins and targeting their eighth straight win. Coming off a big victory over the Lightning that put Boston two points ahead of Tampa Bay for second place, the Bruins were a team that power-play struggles aside seemed bulletproof. 

A week later, the Bruins are winless in their last four games and suddenly prone to blowing leads. Furthermore, their captain is a favorite target of criticism from both players throughout the league and corporate sponsors. It’s been a week to forget for a Bruins team that had previously caught fire. 

The transition from streaking to slumping has been both a surprising and uncharacteristic one. It began with the B’s dropping a hard-fought game against the Penguins last Saturday, but the other three have been duds. None of the losses in the B’s current 0-2-2 stretch was uglier than Friday night’s 4-2 defeat (recap), where they blew a two-goal lead to the Islanders at Nassau Coliseum – the very building in which they began the seven-game win streak. 

Just as last week was too early to plan a Stanley Cup celebration, the past week shouldn’t cause panic as much as it should cause concern. Despite dropping four straight games for the first time all season, the Bruins remain one of the top teams in the NHL. It just so happens that they, like one William Martin Joel, go to extremes. Dating back to Feb. 11, the Bruins lost three in a row, won seven in a row, and have now gone four without a victory. 

The cause for concern isn’t limited to one thing. The current stretch in the Bruins’ schedule was supposed to be of cupcake variety. The six-game span starting Thursday and ending March 19 featured just one opponent in position for a playoff spot in the Sabres. From there, trips to Long Island, Columbus, Nashville, Toronto and New Jersey seemed to make for a great way for the Bruins to regain any momentum lost in Tuesday’s game in Montreal. Instead, the skid has continued, and the fact that they kept it up against an Islanders team that has the fifth-least points in the NHL does nothing to ease any minds. 

“I think we’ve got to start re-focusing on what we are as a team,” Claude Julien said in his post-game interview with NESN’s Naoko Funayama. “We’ve got an identity. When we play a certain way, we’re a very efficient hockey club. I think lately we haven’t been doing that. We’ve gotten away from our game, and that’s what’s hurting us right now.”

Another major issue for the team is the fact that leads have not been safe in back-to-back nights. Thursday, the B’s jumped out a 2-0 lead before seeing the Sabres tie it in about eight minutes and later come back from a 3-2 deficit. The Islanders needed exactly six minutes to go from trailing the Bruins, 2-0, to having a 3-2 lead. For a team that boasts a sound defense and the league’s best goaltending, the uncharacteristic inability to hold a lead is something that will need to be remedied in short order.  

At a part of the season in which everything is a reflection of a team’s chances in the playoffs, few things the B’s have seen since last Saturday bodes well. To question the team’s ability to be a dominant home team would be fair, and depending on how things fall in the final 14 games of the regular season, they might not be in line for an easy first-round matchup. 

The Bruins are currently third in the Eastern Conference, and if the season were to end today, they would face the Canadiens in the first round. For a Boston club that is hoping to get past the second round after hitting its Game 7 wall in consecutive postseasons, a Montreal team with whom they have matched up poorly all season might not be the most welcomed first-round opponent. If they grab the second spot, for which Washington is currently three points ahead of the B’s, they might face the Sabres, who are currently in line for the No. 7 seed. Both teams have given the Bruins significant trouble this season, as the B’s have gone 1-3-1 against Montreal and 2-2-2 against Buffalo. 

Not long ago, the Bruins showed for an extended period of time that they are a force to be reckoned with. After a hellish week, a reminder might be in order.