The Boston Bruins' power play has struggled as of late despite its personnel.
The Boston Bruins' power play has struggled as of late despite its personnel.
The Boston Bruins’ power play has not been up to par.
While Charlie Coyle’s second-period goal on the man advantage put the B’s up 2-1 Saturday at TD Garden in the eventual 3-2 win over the Florida Panthers, Boston went 1-for-5 overall and has scored just twice on the power play in its last 24 chances.
“I also think it’s mental. We talked to them today, we had a meeting. Guys aren’t seeing plays that are there – they’re not seeing it in practice sometimes. Surprising,” Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said Monday. “I know it’s easy, I’m standing there and I’m watching – but my old eyes can see it, they should be seeing it.”
The first unit – of Charlie McAvoy, Brad Marchand, Pavel Zacha, David Pastrnak and James van Riemsdyk – was on the ice getting reps together before practice on Monday and got some loud, at time expletive, pointers from Montgomery as the group worked on special teams later on.
Coyle, Morgan Geekie, Danton Heinen, Jake DeBrusk and Hampus Lindholm skated on the second power play unit on Monday.
“I think just confidence, to be honest with you,” DeBrusk said. “I think that’s the biggest thing with power plays.”
The Bruins’ current 22.6 power play percentage is ranked 11th in the league, which isn’t bad when you look at its performance over an entire season, but the recent numbers are somewhat concerning with the playoffs coming up.
Montgomery said pregame Saturday that he wasn’t worried about the power play, especially the first unit, because of its personnel. However the NHL is a humbling league and talent can only take a team so far.
For one, Pastrnak leads the Bruins with 12 power play goals, but hasn’t potted one since March 7. His 5-on-5 contributions – and 107 points through 78 games – have fueled Boston all year long, but it’s just to say that Pastrnak being on your first unit doesn’t automatically equal goals because of his prestige.
The same goes for Marchand whose last power play goal came on Jan. 13, and van Riemsdyk who last scored up-a-man on Feb. 17.
“I think the details of everybody in their position needs to be better,” Montgomery said. “We need to have a shot-first mentality from the elbows, and from the top. We need our bumper to be more active, we need our net-front guy to take away eyes better, do drive by screens and make more plays from the goal line. We need everybody doing their job better.”
Coyle’s power play goal on Saturday was important for the believability – a nice reminder to the players that they can, in fact, have a clean entry, snap the puck around, evaluate their options and score on the man advantage.
“That’s where I think their mindset needs to be about what we’re going to do, instead of ‘Oh I wonder if it’s not going to work again,’” Montgomery said.
The Bruins have just four regular season games remaining to find some consistency on the power play, but their next opponent has a knack for shutting those opportunities down. The Carolina Hurricanes – who Boston will face for the second time in five days on Tuesday – rank first in the league with a 86.2 penalty kill percentage, and will no doubt be looking to rebound after following the 4-1 loss on April 4.
It’s a challenge, but one the Bruins must embrace and overcome to be at their very best come playoffs.
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