7 telling stats for the Bruins to address coming out of the bye week

The Boston Bruins might have entered their bye week with a disappointing loss to the New York Rangers, but as a whole, you have to be pretty pleased with where the B’s are currently situated in a competitive Eastern Conference. Still, even with a spot in third place in the Atlantic, there are plenty of areas for Boston to shore up as it prepares for a stretch run of 33 games over 68 days. Here’s a look at seven stats that stand out when it comes to facets of the game for the B’s to address, or at the very least, tweak.

32: Points out of a possible 50 against non-playoff clubs

The Eastern Conference standings are awfully tight right now, with just two points separating the second place team in the Atlantic (Toronto) with the club in the second Wild Card spot (Pittsburgh).

The road doesn’t get any easier for the Bruins down the stretch, with 17 of their final 33 games coming against teams currently in the postseason — including three matchups against the Lightning, who are currently torching teams with a 37-10-2 record.

Considering what lies ahead, the Bruins have to be kicking themselves when it comes to leaving points on the board against clubs that they should be taking advantage of.

In 25 games against teams currently not in the playoff picture (a combined record of 292-308-88), Boston has managed to clinch just 32 points out of a possible 50 with a record of 14-8-3.

If you want to narrow it down to non-playoff teams in the East, Boston’s record is just 8-7-1 — equaling out to just 17 points out of a possible 32. Not great.

“I don’t want to be disrespectful to any team,” Bruce Cassidy said of Boston’s most recent loss to New York. “I think the Rangers are playing better hockey. If they have any intention of making the playoffs then they have to make up ground, so they have to be ready to go. Against the Flyers the other night, we got loose, so I’d like to think our guys believe we’re the better team in these games, but you have to play like it.

“So, that’s another thing that needs to be addressed. Are we playing down to the level of competition or are we going to play to our standard? I think that the message from us as a coaching staff over the last two, three years is we need to play to our standard. So, I guess that’s the message we have to get back to and start measuring ourselves against our best selves, so to speak.”

23: Goals surrendered within five minutes of a Bruins goal

For as much firepower as Boston possesses on its top line and power play, the B’s rank just 17th in the NHL in goals per game at 2.90. With goals coming at a bit more of premium than in years past, Boston will need to shore up some of its loose play in the minutes after lighting the lamp.

So far this season, 23 of the 128 goals Boston has relinquished this season have come within five minutes after scoring a goal — not the kind of momentum swing you want in any game. Even when cutting down the length of time following a Bruins goal, the results are still concerning. Within three minutes? 14 goals allowed. Within two minutes? Eight goals allowed. Less than a minute after Boston scores? The B’s have coughed up four goals against.

Cassidy noted Boston has done a better job of starting strong as the year has gone on, but it won’t matter too much if the club continues to give the opposition a fighting chance minutes later.

“I think there comes a time – we have Stanley Cup champions in the room,” Cassidy said. “We talk about leadership with this team all the time and how good it is, and it didn’t change today. ...  I was asked this morning would our focus be on – maybe it was on the break, but I don’t want to use that as a crutch because it’s happened to us how many games now — four, five, six where we’ve kind of let off the gas, got comfortable, maybe thought it was going to be an easy shift the next one and wanted to extend the lead but not playing the right way. So, there’s a lot of those things that go into it.”

83: 5v5 goals scored this season

While Boston has managed to stay afloat in the scoring department thanks to a power play that has tallied the fifth-most 5v4 and 5v3 goals in the league (40) this season, the same can’t be said for the Bruins’ production at 5v5.

Whereas potential Stanley Cup contenders such as the Sharks (126 5v5 goals), Lighting (126), Toronto (120) and Calgary (108) all rank within the top-10 in terms of 5v5 goals, Boston ranks 27th in that department with just 83 on the year.

The clubs behind them — Dallas, Anaheim, Arizona and Los Angeles — have a combined record of 88-89-21, with three of them outside of the playoff picture. Not ideal.

As expected, the top line of Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak has carried most of the scoring responsibility, accounting for 18 5v5 goals. No other Boston line that has logged at least 50 minutes of TOI has managed to reach double-digit 5v5 goals for — the closest being a reshuffled top line with David Krejci centering Marchand and Pastrnak (nine goals).

Speaking of that top line?

19: 5v5 goals surrendered by the Bergeron line this season

When operating at their best, there are few lines as dynamic and versatile as Boston’s top trio of Bergeron, Marchand and Pastrnak. However, when you take a look at their 5v5 totals so far this season, that line has remarkably been out for more 5v5 goals against (19) than they have 5v5 goals scored (18).

Now, the Bergeron line routinely handles tough assignments, especially with Bergeron accounting for a top-six opponent down the other end of the ice, but it’s rather surprising that this line has already surrendered more 5v5 goals this season than all of last year (17) — despite logging 198 fewer minutes in 5v5 TOI. That’s a pretty hefty increase over the course of the year, although that group was lifted last year after not surrendering a 5v5 goal for over 200 minutes of ice time last year. (I will try to include that stat whenever I can, because that’s just silly.)

Now, of course, the Bruins are still a much, much better team when the Bergeron line is out there, no doubt. But it does raise a bit more of a conversation as to what would happen if Cassidy ever opted to split up that trio to round out the scoring in the top six.

For as dynamic a top line is, don’t forget that during the time when Krejci filled in for an injured Bergeron up top, that 63-46-88 trio posted a 58.37 Corsi For Percentage while tallying nine 5v5 goals in just 124 minutes of ice time together — along with just three 5v5 goals surrendered. If anything, some interesting food for thought.

(One interesting tidbit - which Bruins line — min. 50 minutes of 5v5 ice time together — has the top Corsi For Percentage? The fourth-line grouping of Chris Wagner, Sean Kuraly annnnnd David Backes at 59.24 CF%.)

14: 5v5 goals scored by Boston’s de-facto third line last season

A little bit of consistency can go a long way over the course of a long season, and as a whole, Boston found its third-line trio down the stretch in 2017-18 with Riley Nash, Danton Heinen and David Backes.

In just under 332 minutes of 5v5 ice time together, that group looked awfully impressive — scoring 14 5v5 goals and posting a 56.54 Corsi For Percentage en route to a career year for Nash and 47 points for Heinen, good for ninth among all NHL rookies last season.

This year has been a bit more of a struggle for Cassidy when it comes to finding a regular trio for the third line — although it seems like the “Kid Line” of Ryan Donato, Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson and Heinen will be getting the most regular reps (119 minutes of 5v5 TOI) going forward.

Now, that trio certainly has its flaws — Heinen’s production in the O-zone has largely dissipated, JFK still doesn’t seem quite NHL-ready at times and Donato still has to add some size and avoid falling into the trap of ripping low-percentage shots as a winger with a proven wrister.

But as a whole, you can find a silver lining in some of that line’s play. With Heinen and Forsbacka Karlsson’s solid, two-way play, it’s a trio that often isn’t a liability down the other end of the sheet — with the group holding a goals allowed per 60 minute rate of 1.5, lower than the team average of 1.94 at 5v5 play.

Still, when it comes to potential upgrades to this Bruins club, you’d have to think Boston will to take a look at adding another center to give the club another viable line that it can roll out regularly. Even though the JFK line has been pretty responsible, just 10.48 percent of all of their zone starts have come in the defensive zone — meaning that Cassidy and his staff are doing their best to not expose this young group.

You’d have to think that adding a player like Brayden Schenn (52.8 CF%, 27.37 Defensive Zone Start Percentage) could do a lot to bolster a line that still has plenty of potential, especially with players like Heinen looking to turn the corner offensively. 

.856: Save percentage for Jaroslav Halak in January

With Tuukka Rask’s status post-concussion still a bit up in the air during the bye week, Boston will likely have to rely on Jaroslav Halak a bit more coming out of the break. And while the backup netminder helped keep Boston afloat for much of the first two months of the season, his numbers have continued to dip with each passing month this season — starting out at .947 in October before dropping to its current mark of .857 so far in January. 

Even with Rask’s struggles this season (4-4-0, .901 save percentage), he has managed to catch up to Halak in save percentage (.919). Still, Halak is a key cog on this Bruins club, and continues to bail Boston out of some high-leverage situations  —ranking second among all NHL goalies (min. 20 appearances) with a high-danger save percentage of 86.79.

But if Rask is forced to miss some time due to his concussion, the Bruins are going to need a lot more than a sub-.900 save percentage from the next man up in net.

10: Shorthanded goals allowed

For as potent as Boston’s power play has been this season (27.2% - 2nd in NHL), the Bruins have often left themselves vulnerable to momentum-draining shorthanded bids — tying for first among all clubs in the league with 10 shorthanded goals allowed. Boston allowed 10 all of last season. 

They’ve come due to a variety of reasonings — defensive breakdowns, bad positioning in the offensive zone, poor puck play by Tuukka Rask — but as a whole, many of them can be corrected with just stronger overall execution by B’s regulars out on the ice. Much like their struggles with keeping the opposing team off the board in the minutes following a goal, Boston cannot keep relinquishing back-breaking tallies such as this, especially on the man advantage.