The Boston Bruins are 1-2-1 since the All-Star break and have a 5.9 percent success rate on the power play in that span (1-for-17). Here's how they're approaching the man advantage going forward.
The Boston Bruins are 1-2-1 since the All-Star break and have a 5.9 percent success rate on the power play in that span (1-for-17). Here's how they're approaching the man advantage going forward.
BRIGHTON, Mass. – The Boston Bruins are 0-for-13 on the power play in their last three games, but they aren’t hitting the panic button just yet.
The Bruins are 1-2-1 since the All-Star break, during which they’ve scored just one power-play goal in 17 chances. What was at points this season a top three unit has dipped down to eighth as of Wednesday at 25.0 percent.
Bruins coach Jim Montgomery shared that assistant coach Chris Kelly broke down video with the team ahead of practice.
“[Kelly] showed clips of when we were rolling and, lately, the difference of coming together on breakouts, executing and finishing our routes on entries, and then the quicker puck movement and looking to get pucks to high-grade scoring areas,” Montgomery said.
The Bruins went 0-for-6 on the power play in Tuesday’s 3-2 shootout loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning, which included three third-period opportunities with the game tied.
Aside from switching out Pavel Zacha and Charlie Coyle depending on the situation, the top power play unit has largely remained Charlie McAvoy, David Pastrnak, Brad Marchand and James van Riemsdyk, and Montgomery said he’s comfortable leaving it that way.
While the lack of recent production is cause for concern, the Bruins have stuck to their process and are trending in the right direction. After putting just two shots on net in 5:10 of ultimately inconsequential power-play time in Boston’s 4-0 win over the Vancouver Canucks on Feb. 8, as well as matching the Washington Capitals’ penalty kill in shots 2-2 during their third-period power-play chances in Saturday’s 3-0 loss, the Bruins produced eight shots on goal across their six chances against Tampa Bay.
One of those power plays came with just three seconds left in overtime, and they outshot the Lightning 5-1 and out-chanced them 7-1 in their three chances during the third period. Not to mention, van Riemsdyk’s tying goal late in the second period came on a 6-on-5 delayed penalty.
“We’ve shown foundationally and structure-wise that we have a good plan that works,” van Riemsdyk said. “Sometimes puck luck goes your way, sometimes it doesn’t, but I think ultimately you just want to make sure you’re having a good process, getting a lot of chances and usually kind of the law of averages and numbers will go back your way.”
The Bruins are now four games into their seven-game homestand, with the Seattle Kraken and their 21st-ranked penalty kill (78.5 percent) on the docket for Thursday. Seattle’s also committed the eighth-fewest penalties so far this season, so while there may not be many opportunities to right the ship on the man advantage, Coyle believes the team’s patience and focus on simplifying the game will be key to breaking the drought.
“When you’re not scoring as much as you like on there, you start to get away from some things and you start to second-guess yourself,” Coyle said. “But you just gotta go, I think, [to a] more simple style, or not get too cute with it…
“We want to make it hard for teams to come in and play there [at TD Garden]. It’s great to be at home, be on a long stretch like this where you’re kind of settled in.”
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