Bruins in dire need of major shakeup before season spirals out of

Bruins in dire need of major shakeup before season spirals out of control originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

How many embarrassing losses are the Boston Bruins going to suffer before management/ownership makes the kind of meaningful changes this team so desperately needs?

The Bruins have suffered quite a few awful defeats this season, but none of them were as brutal as what unfolded Monday night at TD Garden, where the Columbus Blue Jackets earned a shocking 5-1 win. It was the Bruins’ third straight defeat, dropping their record to 8-9-1.

The Blue Jackets scored two (!) shorthanded goals. Six Bruins players, including top-six forwards David Pastrnak and Pavel Zacha, failed to tally a single shot on net. Starting goalie Jeremy Swayman gave up five goals on 29 shots.

We could go on and on about what went wrong against the Blue Jackets and the previous nine losses for the Bruins so far this season, but the bottom line is this team needs major re-tooling, whether that’s a trade or a coaching change or both.

Let’s start with the trade possibility. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported last Saturday on Hockey Night in Canada that the B’s have been looking at potential moves.

“In Boston, lost again [Saturday] and they’ve definitely been out there trying to see if there’s something they can do to shake them up,” Friedman said. “There’s definitely a lot of intensity in Boston.”

Friedman also talked about this topic during his 32 Thoughts podcast released Monday morning.

“I heard that one of the things the players have talked about is, ‘Look guys, there’s a lot of noise around our team right now and we just have to stick together.’ And the tough thing is, is it looked like they were out of it with that double-shutout weekend a little bit ago, but they haven’t righted themselves,” Friedman said. “But I’ve heard that that’s been the message, like, ignore the noise and pull together. And I think they’ve been active about talking about…