How does an NHL team respond after a blowout loss? For Bruce Cassidy, patience & perseverance are prescribed

There wasn’t much that needed to be said following Boston’s 5-0 loss to the Panthers on Tuesday night.

If anything, harping on just about everything that went wrong for the Bruins — poor gaps, a listless power play, non-existent production from the bottom six and plenty more — would have had Bruce Cassidy droning on and on in his postgame rant.

So what does a team do the next time they arrive at the rink — especially in wake of a blowout loss?

For some, a bag skate (in which players are thrown into a near constant stretch of skating drills up and down the ice)  might be the best route — a wakeup call for a Bruins club that has dropped three of its last four matchups and is lagging behind some of the big guns in the Atlantic Division.

But given the intensity of Boston’s schedule — along with the number of flaws that need to be addressed ahead of Thursday’s matchup against the East-leading Lightning, Cassidy wasn’t ready to put his players through the gauntlet on Wednesday afternoon in Tampa.

“If you do it at the right time, the guys are okay with it,” Cassidy said of the feared bag skate. “It's like, ‘Bring it on.’ You've just got to pick the right time. I find in our season, (there’s) so limited time to practice. Now you go down in Providence, we had a few because you play, say Friday-Saturday-Sunday, you don't play against til Friday, so Tuesday, let's get after it.

“But I find at this level, you're really going to have to find that one time of the year where you have three days between games, it's probably the time you want to do it. If you're on a four-game winning streak, that doesn't usually go over well."

No, rather than a steady dose of “Herbies,” Cassidy kept things simple during Wednesday’s practice — focusing on a few key facets of the game that Boston has a chance of shoring up ahead of Thursday’s tilt.



Boston doesn’t expect its secondary-scoring woes to turn the corner by itself, but by focusing on solving a stagnant power play and its sluggish entries into the offensive zone — the B’s stand a chance of reverting back to the team that collected points in six of seven games following Zdeno Chara’s injury back on Nov. 14.

“I think our guys just have to (say), 'Ok we've been winning a certain way for four or five weeks. Do I remember how that was?’” Cassidy said. "'How did I play in that? How did we, as a team, play?’ …  After a game like yesterday, you get on the bus or the plane, there are probably 10 things you are pissed about. You can't fix them all in one practice. Let's go back and see what we can do better.”

During Boston’s productive 4-1-2 stretch following the loss of Chara, the B’s offense was still stagnant at times, with the club averaging 1.85 goals during that stretch.

But even with an unproductive bottom-six and ineffective play at 5v5, Boston’s power play continued to hum at an effective pace — with the Bruins’ man advantage operating at a 29.9 success rate (2nd in NHL) as late as Dec. 1.

Starting with that home tilt against the Red Wings, however, Boston’s power play has left much to be desired, cashing in on just one of its last 10 attempts over the last two games — both losses, in shocking fashion.

The loss of Bergeron at the bumper on the B’s top power-play unit is a major loss, but Boston still has more than enough firepower at 5-on-4, whether it be Torey Krug quarterbacking from the point, David Pastrnak hovering around the slot or Jake DeBrusk mucking things up at the net front.

With Bergeron in the fold, Boston tallied a goal in 30.8 percent of their power plays (20-for-65). But against a Panthers team that ranked 29th in the league in goals allowed per game at 3.56, there’s no reason that the Bruins should only land three shots on goal in 6:16 of 5-on-4 play.



While Boston failed to maintain any sustained pressure in the Panthers’ zone during the power play, the B’s second power-play unit especially labored — with Boston only firing one shot on goal during that 2:55 of TOI that the Krejci-Heinen-Donato line was called, while a blown tire by Krug led to a shorthanded chance by Troy Brouwer.

“Possession before position” is the biggest issue plaguing Boston’s power play at the moment, according to Cassidy — with a lackluster effort against Detroit on Saturday paving the way for even more trouble down in Florida.

“The last two games I just haven't liked our, maybe, playing for one another on that unit," Cassidy said. "Working to get open — doing those little things to win pucks back. We were doing that very well. … Just not enough O-zone time for the talent we have, and that's usually a sign of you're not winning pucks and you're not supporting to get it back."

The odds are stacked against the shorthanded Bruins, especially against a loaded Lightning squad that has largely obliterated the competition so far this year.

But, echoing Cassidy’s sentiments, Marchand believes that patience and going back to basics might be just what this team needs to stay off the ropes Thursday.

"You just have to simplify," Marchand said. "I think the biggest thing when you're not scoring is you just have to do other things the right way. We have to be better defensively as a group when we're not scoring the same. We can't worry about winning games scoring with four or five goals, we have to win with two.

“That's just where we're at right now. We have to clean up defensively. If we do that, continue to push - we're getting our opportunities, we're just not necessarily capitalizing. If we keep going and keep getting those chances, they're going to go in eventually."