The best remedy for Bruins’ uneven second power-play unit? Fire away

Stop me if you’ve heard this before — but the Bruins haven’t been all that great at scoring during 5v5 play this season.

It’s beating a dead horse at this point, but for as solid as this Bruins team has been this season given the amount of injuries it's faced, it’s awfully concerning when you look at how much this club relies on its power-play prowess to bail it out of listless even-strength stretches.

And while Boston’s man advantage operates with a potent 27.3 percent success rate (good for second overall in the NHL), it’s a power play that also isn’t without its warts.

After relinquishing 10 shorthanded goals all of last season, this club has equaled that mark through 50 games in 2018-19 — a byproduct of some unlucky bounces, over-aggressive play in the offensive zone and some poor puck management around Boston’s own net.

Of course, some of those blemishes can be mitigated when players like David Pastrnak (14 power-play goals) and Torey Krug (20 power-play points) are carving up the opposition down the other end of the ice.

But what if that top unit stalls? The onus then falls to Boston’s second grouping on the power play — a faction that has struggled at times to generate quality chances on the back end of an opposing penalty.

So far this season, the Bruins have tallied 44 power-play goals (4th in NHL) and notched 125 points on the man advantage. Of that scoring output, 31 goals and 91 points were generated from the first unit — which has primarily featured Pastrnak, Krug, Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand, with Jake DeBrusk serving as the latest addition as a net-front presence.

The remaining 13 goals and 34 points have come from the rest of Boston’s contributors on the power play — which is now comprised of David Krejci, David Backes, Matt Grzelcyk and Charlie McAvoy, while Peter Cehlarik has slotted in for Danton Heinen over the past two weeks.

Now, given how dynamic Boston’s top power-play squad can be — along with the added reps they earn as Bruce Cassidy’s go-to group — perhaps it’s a bit unreasonable to compare the disparity in point production between both the first and second unit.

But, as evidenced during Tuesday’s shootout loss to Winnipeg, it’s not the quality of the chances that the second unit has failed to generate — it’s simply getting the puck off their sticks.



During Boston’s final stint on the power play against the Jets, Boston’s second unit saw close to 40 seconds of time in Winnipeg’s zone — cycling the puck up from around the point and down low.



The puck movement was there, and the group did its damnedest to open up seams, with Krejci at one point breaking Andrew Copp’s ankles with a quick move from the high slot. And yet, zero shots managed to reach Connor Hellebuyck.



For as great as some skaters on Boston’s second power-play unit are in terms of feeding the puck around the O-zone — it can be a little tough to generate looks when you roll out players that aren’t prone to firing home a large volume of shots, such as Krejci and McAvoy.



When looking at individual shots for per 60 minutes of power-play time, it should come as no surprise that snipers like Pastrnak post some gaudy numbers — with the winger averaging about 22.1 shots for per 60 minutes on the man advantage. Pastrnak might be leading the pack, but other first-unit contributors like Bergeron (13.88 iSF/60), Marchand (12.1), DeBrusk (11.56) and Krug (9.8) have all followed suit when it comes to peppering the opposing net.

Only Backes (9.47 iSF/60) comes close to replicating that level of shot generation on the second unit, followed by Krejci 6.39. Danton Heinen, who logged 66 minutes of power-play TOI this year, has averaged 8.11 shots for per 60 — while Grzelcyk and McAvoy have been quiet from the blue line with shot rates of 4.35 and 3.28, respectively.

“I think they were stubborn,” Cassidy said of his second unit after Tuesday’s loss. “Winnipeg kills a certain way. If you rotate the puck around up top you will get, we’ll call it a flank elbow, top of the circle look. Their D don’t come out and contest. They’d rather box out in front via the bumper. I just think we were unwilling to shoot the puck. That’s been an issue for the second group all year. It was in the meeting this morning, looking out after intermission at the shots.

“They were there for the taking. We chose not to take them, so shame on us. And what’d we get out of it? Squat, so there you go. Hopefully, it’s a lesson that, listen, you have to take what they give you some nights and not force plays. …. Unfortunately, we’ll go back to the drawing board on that, see what the next opponent brings.”

It’s been a trying year so far for McAvoy due to injuries, but Cassidy is still hoping that the young defenseman can start to get rolling on the power play in order to get into a groove. Despite his poise in the offensive zone, McAvoy has failed to notch a single point on the man advantage this season.

"I think it's standard with young players — if something's not going your way, they want to make up for it in a hurry. … I guess the one thing I'd like to see Charlie do a little more is just simplify when it's not going well and just shoot the puck,” Cassidy said. “He's got a hard shot, got an accurate shot. When he makes a nice play, it's a nice play and you get a nice reward from it.

“But I think there's a lot of nights where it’s learning in this league, ‘Hey, it's 82 (games) a year, let's just balance that out better about trying to look for the open guy versus just getting it on net and let players get there for a second chance, tip and it might find their way in."

There are more pressing issues for the Bruins when it comes to solving their scoring woes at 5v5 play, but not having a consistent secondary scoring option on the power play could seriously hamper this club come playoffs. Thankfully, a potential solution doesn’t seem to require any lineup shuffling or major retooling. All it might take is another shot or two. 

(All stats via Corsica).