Bruins power play goes full Jekyll & Hyde in Wednesday’s frustrating loss to Philly

Given the opponent, Boston’s power-play stalwarts had to be licking their chops just prior to puck drop against the Flyers on Wednesday night.

Despite a recent blip in execution, Boston’s play on the man advantage has largely hummed at an effective rate for most of the 2018-19 season — cashing in on 27.8 percent of its chances (good for second place in the NHL), with that number jumping up to 34.7 since the start of January.

Big things were expected against a woeful Flyers’ penalty kill, which entered Wednesday’s primetime matchup ranked 28th among NHL clubs in terms of stymying the opposition on the man advantage.

Boston’s power-play prowess lived up to its billing in the opening stanza, with David Pastrnak one-timing a feed from Torey Krug past Carter Hart just 25 seconds into Philly’s first penalty of the night.

The opening salvo appeared to the first of multiple haymakers that the B’s were set to land against Hart in net. But as the minutes on the man advantage piled on as the game progressed and Boston’s lead slipped away, Bruce Cassidy noticed his club straying further and further away from what makes its power play one of the most lethal units in the league.

By the end of Boston’s frustrating 4-3 loss at the hands of the cellar-dwelling Flyers, the Bruins had just one power-play goal to show for against Philadelphia’s porous PK group despite logging 9:25 TOI during 5v4 situations.

Maybe the optics don’t look quite so bad at first glance. After all, most clubs would be happy with a 25 percent success rate, along with the 7-0 edge in shots on goal that Boston generated while on the power play Wednesday. When you add in Boston’s propensity to surrender shorthanded goals (a league-high 10 relinquish this year), Wednesday’s stalled showing had to carry a few silver linings, right?

Well, any good will went out the door during a five-minute stretch on the power play that largely put an end to any momentum Boston was still clinging to during the contest. Handed a prime chance after Jori Lehtera was given a five-minute major and game misconduct for a dangerous hit on Ryan Donato, Boston’s power play went to work in the final minutes of the second period. Well, at least it tried to.



Struggling with 5v4 zone entries for most of the night, Boston’s usually potent power play quickly ran out of gas following Lehtera’s hit — landing just three shots on goal against Hart during the five-minute sequence that spanned two periods of play.

“It’s a big swing in the game. I think they get a little bit of momentum,” Krug said. "They're feeling good about themselves after killing it off. We had to take better advantage of it. Settle the puck down once we get in the zone, because we did get in there, we penetrated their line a few times. It was all about that next pass, and we couldn’t execute. Forcing shots, some of that is on me from up top. Everyone as well, it was just trying to force it a little bit too much.”




When Boston’s power play is at its best — it’s usually off of sequences generated along the half wall (where Krug was on Boston’s lone PP strike), with Patrice Bergeron usually in the middle facilitating passes along the slot or opening seams from his usual spot at the bumper.

But as seen in Boston’s 5v4 shot chart above, a number of shots on the Bruins’ four power-play stints ether came from the point or outside of the slot/faceoff circles.

The Flyers’ PK may not be all that great, but it certainly makes things a bit easier for them when they can get their body in front of some shots from the blue line, with Philly closing out the game with seven blocks during Boston’s power play.

“We took a lot of shots from the top,” Cassidy said. “Which is not our power play. We generally look bumper, so they close on that, Bergy — which we scored on early with some movement. Even the net-front tip (from Peter Cehlarik) that we got the 6-on-5 goal on. It’s option three. So it’s basically option four — shooting from up there.

“If we feel like they’re really packing it in. So that was befuddling to me. We tried to address it, but players see what they see and you’ve got to trust them. I just didn’t like our shot selection on that power play at all. If you’re going to do that, you’ve got to have all four guys converge in for the rebounds. I thought they did a good job blocking in front of those and getting the clear. I think we needed to use the elbows of the perimeter a little more at first to stretch them out and then maybe get in there, but it didn’t work out that way.”

Now, is Boston’s power play becoming an issue? They’ve only scored on three their of their last 14 chances, but as a whole, the Bruins have much bigger fish to fry when it comes to issues plaguing the club — especially when it comes to 5v5 scoring.

But still, on the nights where Boston’s usually stout power play falls into a rut, it can make for some arduous hockey. 

“When you look at it after, maybe we find out that they were closing the seam to Pasta and that was what was available,” Cassidy said. “But I still believe then we could move a little more after a couple times. At the end of the day, they’ve done a good job with it. Power play, specifically at the start of the year, won us a lot of games. Tonight, it was our Achilles' heel.”