The Boston Bruins had reached a new level of futility on the man advantage, but a timely goal shifted the conversation in Saturday's 3-2 overtime win against the Florida Panthers.
BOSTON – Entering Saturday’s matchup with the Florida Panthers, the Boston Bruins’ power play was struggling. It had gone 1-for-19 (5.3%) over the last seven games, but there were not any noticeable adjustments.
Still, Bruins coach Jim Montgomery was not concerned. Given the talent the top unit boasts – David Pastrnak, Charlie McAvoy, Brad Marchand – Montgomery said he believes it’s just a matter of time until it starts clicking again.
“I know it doesn’t look great lately, but we’re working on things,” Montgomery said before the game. “And when you’re working on things, sometimes it’s not natural. But we think because we’re working on it now, it’ll be natural come playoff time.”
Whatever the case, it certainly didn’t look natural during the first period later that afternoon. A physical yet undisciplined Panthers team committed three minor penalties in the opening frame, but the Bruins failed to cash in on any of them. Boston generated just four shots on goal across the three chances, and while the game was tied 1-1 entering the second period, the opportunities to take a lead were squandered.
After the game, Montgomery acknowledged that he could feel the frustration from the team on the bench, but that he discussed how the only opportunity that would matter is the next one.
Tensions continued to boil over through the second period, and when Matthew Tkachuk got called for interference after hitting Parker Wotherspoon into the boards from behind, the Bruins made sure not to let their fourth power-play opportunity pass by.
Pastrnak entered the zone with just under 40 seconds left in the penalty time before dishing it over to Marchand on the left point. The Bruins captain was given plenty of room to work with, and by the time Dmitry Kulikov challenged him, Charlie Coyle had placed himself perfectly between the ‘diamond’ of penalty killers. Marchand sent in the pass and Coyle redirected it past Bobrovsky to take a 2-1 lead at 15:45 of the second.
Even though Aleksander Barkov tied it again in the third period, Jesper Boqvist ended up scoring the overtime winner. As important as the two points in the standings were, the top power-play unit finally scoring matters just as much.
“You get a big goal on the power play, it can be huge,” Coyle said. “Especially come playoff time. So it’s just a work in progress. There’s things we can do better, but of course it’s nice to see it go in.”
Of course, if given as many opportunities the Panthers gave them come playoff time, the Bruins will still want to convert more than just one. That said, they have four more games to pot a couple more before the postseason.
“I think we’re just trying to put our best game together going into playoffs, and I think we played a lot of really good teams here as of late," McAvoy said. "So for us, it’s not so much about the opponent but ourselves and trying to … really round into form here.”
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