By the time Drew Stafford was ready to snap off Thursdays game-winning goal,

Zach Trotman stood on an island in no-mans land, trying to cover two Jets at
once.This is not how the Bruins want to play. It does not matter whos dressed,
whos been traded, or whos injured. Regardless of their roster, the Bruins protect
their net with multiple layers. If one perimeter is breached, the next wall of
protection stands upright to fend off the attack.Just about every layer
disintegrated in the Bruins 6-2 season-opening tumble.Staffords deciding goal,
the third puck that slipped past Tuukka Rask in the second period, underscored
the issues that could bury the Bruins if they dont correct them quickly. The Jets
overwhelmed the third line of Jimmy Hayes, Ryan Spooner, and Brett Connolly.
Matt Irwin, who exchanged puck coverage with Spooner, got caught up high.
After dipping below the goal line to seal off what he read as a behind-the-net
pass, Trotman was in full scramble mode in front. Connolly didnt have time to
collapse into the slot. Whether it was coverage, layers, whether it was decisions
with the puck, D-zone awareness, we made all of those mistakes tonight, said
coach Claude Julien. Which resulted in goals against.The Bruins used to be in
position to keep such breakdowns from happening. They could shelter Spooner
by deploying him with a stout defensive duo. They could keep the third pairing
from performing heavy defensive lifting.Injuries, absence of depth, and personnel
decisions left Julien, for one game, without many options. Had Zdeno Chara and
Dennis Seidenberg been healthy, Irwin and Trotman would have been healthy
scratches or playing in Providence. Instead, Irwin and Trotman, like their
teammates, had nowhere to hide when Winnipegs barrage began.We were
getting chances and getting shots through, Trotman said of the Bruins good
first period. Then we just started out rough in the second period. We didnt
recover from there. Its something well have to do moving forward to be a good
team.Some mistakes are simple human errors. In the second, Irwin tried to start
the breakout from behind his net. When he tried to move the puck, Andrew Ladd
closed in and stripped it off his blade. Seconds later, Blake Wheeler gave the Jets
a 2-1 lead. It would be hard for Irwin to replicate that boo-boo even if he tried.But
the kind of mistakes that jack up a coachs blood pressure are the ones caused
by lack of focus, cloudy thinking, and bad habits. They are the mistakes that can
creep into a teams structure, hang around, and become difficult to eliminate,
even after just one game. Before Irwins cough-up, the fourth line went for a
change. This caused Irwin, who didnt have a clean outlet up the ice, to hesitate
behind the net. In the second, Joe Morrow was in position to start a standard
breakout from the left side of the defensive zone. Matt Beleskey, David Krejci,
and David Pastrnak blew the zone quickly. Morrow sent the puck off the left wall
and onto the blade of Dustin Byfuglien. On the counterattack, Mark Scheifele
whistled the tying goal past Rask at 5:26.After Staffords eventual winner,
Pastrnak punched back at 1:25 of the third, making it a 3-2 game. But on
Pastrnaks next shift, the Jets reclaimed their two-goal lead.With the puck deep in
the Winnipeg zone, Irwin did the right thing by pinching down the left wall to
keep the cycle alive. But when Irwin pinched, a forward had to rotate high to
cover his spot. That didnt happen. So when Alexander Burmistrov retrieved the
puck and chipped it out of the zone, the Bruins didnt have support to mark Chris
Thorburn peeling up the ice. Krejci tried to retreat. But the center was a step late
in closing off Staffords centering pass. Krejci backchecked hard, only to help
Thorburns shot tumble past Rask at 5:17. Weve got to work and rectify those
things as soon as possible, then work on the next game, Julien said of the
postmortem video the staff will show on Friday. We cant keep dragging those
things on, not when you have an 82-game schedule and you keep dragging the
negative to the day after and the day after that. Were going to show that once,
move on, and hopefully get a better outing next game.The Bruins knew the

start would be turbulent. Torey Krug and Adam McQuaid are usually the No. 3
pairing. Instead, they stared down Winnipegs top line of Ladd, Wheeler, and
Bryan Little. Morrow is still developing. Kevan Miller is best positioned on the No.
3 duo. The current six-pack cannot hang with a defense such as Winnipegs,
which had Tyler Myers and Toby Enstrom as its third pairing.Its why with a
borderline NHL blue line, the Bruins needed a flawless Rask and committed
defensive reinforcements from their forwards. They had neither.The Bruins will
improve defensively starting on Saturday against Montreal. They cannot be any
worse.