Boston Bruins
A dormant energy play and main regression from each Morgan Geekie and Elias Lindholm has hindered Boston’s playoff push.
At face worth, the Bruins closing out a three-game street journey with 4 out of a doable six factors would seemingly be a welcome growth for Marco Sturm’s membership.
In spite of everything, Boston entered this trek with seven straight losses away from TD Backyard.
However the Bruins additionally return to Boston having squandered a chief alternative to seize six of six factors — dropping back-to-back video games in time beyond regulation to the Devils and Canadiens on Monday and Tuesday.
Each defeats doled out over the span of 24 hours featured Boston giving up the game-winning tally with below 30 seconds to go within the additional body — with Cole Caufield sealing a 3-2 Habs win with simply 22 seconds to go in OT on the Bell Centre.
With simply 14 video games left within the common season, the Bruins at present sit within the high wild-card spot within the Jap Convention — simply forward of the Purple Wings by advantage of getting yet one more regulation win (27).
However the red-hot Blue Jackets sit one level (81) behind each the Bruins and Purple Wings — with a recreation in hand.
The Bruins don’t have an entire lot of respiration room for this stretch run, with a number of lingering points persevering with to hamper a roster that has but to search out traction since coming back from the Olympic break.
Listed here are three issues that Boston must appropriate if this workforce needs to punch a ticket to the playoffs:
A dormant energy play
Even with Pavel Zacha lighting the lamp on the person benefit Tuesday, the Bruins’ energy play has gone from a constant avenue of offense right into a momentum-sapping mechanism in document time.
Popping out of the Olympic break, the Bruins ranked third within the NHL when it comes to power-play share — cashing in on 26.3 p.c of their alternatives.
Since then they’re twenty eighth within the league with only a 12.8 p.c success price — scoring 5 tallies off of 39 makes an attempt.
Zacha’s objective however, it was removed from a banner night time for Boston’s energy play up in Quebec.
Earlier than Zacha backhanded a ricocheting puck previous Habs goalie Jakub Dobes, extra disjointed passing from Boston’s high playmakers practically led to a Montreal shorthanded tally — with Jeremy Swayman turning apart a breakaway bid from Josh Anderson.
The remainder of Tuesday’s contest featured extra of the identical from a stagnant energy play — with poor passing and a cussed method on entries giving Boston little time to fabricate high quality probabilities within the offensive zone.
In 7:57 of power-play ice time against Montreal, the Bruins tried simply 10 photographs — and solely generated three high-danger scoring probabilities.
Be it reshuffling the personnel on the highest unit or simplifying their method on zone entries, Bruins assistant coach Steve Spott must make a couple of tweaks to get Boston’s energy play buzzing as soon as once more.
No-shows on the third line
The “child line” of Fraser Minten, Marat Khusnutdinov, and famous teenager David Pastrnak helped generate two 5-on-5 tallies on Monday in Newark.
Boston’s second line of Zacha, Viktor Arvidsson, and Casey Mittelstadt — as they’ve seemingly carried out all season — did a whole lot of the heavy lifting within the offensive zone on Tuesday in opposition to Montreal.
In an ideal world, it’d be a optimistic signal for the Bruins’ scoring depth {that a} 34-goal scorer in Morgan Geekie and a former top-line pivot in Elias Lindholm have been relegated to the third line this month.
As an alternative, that phase of Sturm’s ahead corps has withered away right into a figurative no-man’s land — producing few positives down each ends of the frozen sheet for a Bruins workforce in determined want of a carry.
Following Tuesday’s loss, the Bruins have now performed 11 video games because the NHL resumed motion after the Winter Olympics. Over that stretch, each Lindholm and Geekie have generated zero factors at 5-on-5 play. Zero.
It’s been downright dour for 2 forwards who performed a hefty half in Boston’s success for many of the first four-plus months of this season.
Over this similar 11-game stretch, each Lindholm and Geekie have been on the ice collectively for 64:16 of 5-on-5 ice time. Throughout these reps, the Bruins have been outscored, 4-0, whereas that duo’s hunch has additionally factored closely into Boston’s sputtering energy play.
Sturm may need to reshuffle his strains as soon as once more and bump Geekie again as much as a reworked high line with Pastrnak and Minten to get Boston’s high trigger-man rolling as soon as once more.
In any other case, the Bruins should wait till James Hagens’ season at Boston Faculty wraps in the event that they need to give this ahead grouping one other jolt.
Query marks on the third D pair
Andrew Peeke may need saved a objective within the waning minutes of the third interval by corralling a puck close to the crease in opposition to a number of prodding Montreal sticks.
Nonetheless, it was removed from the sharpest night time for the veteran defenseman — as he was out on the ice for each of Montreal’s two tallies in regulation play.
Sturm has continued to fit Peeke out and in of the lineup because the NHL resumed play in late February — usually swapping him with Henri Jokiharju as Boston’s right-shot possibility on the third defensive pairing.
Whereas Peeke labored this season when paired with Hampus Lindholm (Boston outscored, 21-8, of their 339 minutes of 5-on-5 reps), the numbers haven’t been a lot better for a duo of Peeke and Nikita Zadorov as of late.
Because the Bruins returned from the Milano-Cortina video games, a Zadorov-Peeke pairing has been outscored, 4-2, in 96:01 of 5-on-5 reps.
Sturm may need to make the decision and stick to one in every of Peeke or Jokiharju for this stretch run, quite than proceed this present carousel of blueliners subsequent to Zadorov.
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