On paper, the Bruins' roster has more than its fair share of personnel catered to dominate on the open ice that comes with the 3-on-3 overtime.
Whether it be Brad Marchand (with a franchise-best 13 OT goals on his resume), a playmaking quarterback on the blue line in Torey Krug, a proven sniper in David Pastrnak or a pivot that thrives in space in David Krejci — Boston can go to a number of different options during an extra stanza.
And yet, for all of their firepower up front, the Bruins slumped out of the gate this season during overtime play with a 1-4 record.
And while players like Marchand, Pastrnak and Krug have notched their fair share of game-winning tallies over the years, Bruce Cassidy was starting to take note of some careless play with the puck — usually from his go-to players in the offensive zone.
Let’s take a look at Boston’s four OT losses to start the 2018-19 campaign:
Oct. 18 vs. Edmonton:
A Marchand feed from behind Boston’s net was picked off in the neutral zone by Connor McDavid, allowing the Oilers captain to skate back into the B’s zone and feed Leon Draisaitl for the game-winner.
Oct. 20 vs. Vancouver:
A turnover by Marchand at center ice allowed Brock Boeser to skate in on a 2-on-1 with Bo Horvat — with the later slipping the puck past Jaroslav Halak for the 2-1 final.
Nov. 16 vs. Dallas:
A feed from Marchand failed to hit Pastrnak in stride over in the offensive zone, giving Dallas a chance to recover the puck and start a 2-on-1. While Tuukka Rask stopped the initial shot from Mattias Janmark, Jason Dickinson was there to bury the rebound to close out the 1-0 win.
Nov. 21 vs. Detroit
After a faceoff loss by Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson, both Marchand and Krug failed to win a puck battle in the slot against Andreas Athanasiou — with the Wings forward eventually recovering the biscuit, whipping around and firing one home to seal the 3-2 win.
All costly miscues by Boston’s skill players up front — with three of those OT winners coming within the first 1:45 of OT, and two within the first minute.
The space afforded to players during overtime to cycle the puck and orchestrate quality chances in the o-zone can serve as a double-edged sword at times for clubs, especially when the period is dominated by skaters willing to take risks in search of a home-run play to lock up two points.
“Early in the year, I thought we get a little loose with the puck with the offensive guys and we never got it back and we're digging it out of our net,” Cassidy said on Saturday. “Part of that is just the learning curve, part of it is we're just mixing it up and hopefully we can extend the overtime so it works in our favor.”
Some of it has been due to injury, but as of late, Cassidy has switched around some of his usual rotations during overtime — opting to incorporate more defensive-minded, physical skaters into his groupings in an effort to limit opposing chances and keep things simple in the offensive zone.
And the results speak for themselves.
Since that loss to Detroit back in November, Boston has emerged with two points in each of their last three OT outings — with two of those game-winners coming off the sticks of a pair of unlikely contributors.
On Nov. 23 against Pittsburgh, it was Joakim Nordstrom who provided the heroics — deflecting a feed from Krug past Tristan Jarry out in front to close out a 2-1 win.
And then on Saturday against Buffalo — in what might be Boston’s signature win so far this year — it was fourth liner Sean Kuraly who answered the call.
Bumped into the rotation due to Marchand’s absence (upper-body injury), Kuraly kept it simple — firing a puck on net against Carter Hutton upon skating into Buffalo’s zone. Staying with the play, Kuraly knocked home the rebound to give Boston its only lead of the night in what was a 3-2 comeback win.
.@kurals9 with the follow – for the win.#NHLBruins pic.twitter.com/JNfXMqOwED
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) December 30, 2018