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Haggerty: Bruins’ slow start a legitimate concern

Joel Ward, Jordan Caron, Dennis Seidenberg

Washington Capitals right wing Joel Ward (42) celebrates a goal by teammate Mike Green behind Boston Bruins defensemen Kevan Miller (86) and Dennis Seidenberg (44), of Germany, during the second period of an NHL hockey game in Boston, Saturday, Oct. 11, 2014. The Capitals won 4-0. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

AP

With just one win in their first three games -- and after losing 4-0 at home to the Capitals on Saturday -- CSN New England’s Joe Haggerty thinks it’s “okay to question what the heck is going on” with the Boston Bruins.

Writes Haggerty:

Players, coaches and executives can say all the right things after a deal like the Johnny Boychuk salary dump, but the message that’s reverberating from the upper levels down to the locker room is that the team isn’t “all in” to win this season. That can have a toxic effect in the clubhouse, and signs of that toxicity have shown up in the first three games. Witness how many B’s players seem to have a look of doom on their faces when they get down by a couple of goals, and there have been more shoulders slumped in the last two losses to Detroit and Washington than at any time in the last five years.

The Bruins are hosting Colorado (speaking of slow starts) this afternoon at TD Garden, and it sounds like they’ll have David Krejci back in the lineup. Which is to say, there’s a very good chance that Boston comes out with the win.

But even with a victory over the Avs, the concerns in Boston won’t be alleviated. Boychuk will still be on the Islanders, and Jarome Iginla will still be playing for Colorado.

Speaking of Iginla, in Haggerty’s opinion, Loui Eriksson -- the guy the B’s were hoping could step into the top six and replace the departed 30-goal-scorer -- is “a third-line winger in Boston, and he’s never going to be the offensive force the Bruins hoped he’d be when they acquired him as part of the package for Tyler Seguin.”

Related: Risk Factors: Boston Bruins edition