After reeling off the second longest point streak in franchise history at 19 games, the Bruins have suddenly found themselves in a rut, dropping three straight games in regulation during road matchups against the Penguins, Blue Jackets and Jets. Obviously, injuries have played a major role in this recent downturn, but let's take a look at a couple of telling stats from Boston’s mini-slump with postseason hockey less than a month away.
27: Giveaways by Bruins during the three-game road trip
All season long, the Bruins have been one of the better teams in the league when it comes to puck possession, ranking seventh among all NHL clubs with a 52.06 Corsi For Percentage.
Whether it be players that prefer to hold on to the puck and slow down the pace like David Krejci, shifty defensemen that get rid of the biscuit quick like Charlie McAvoy and Matt Grzelcyk or forwards that are near impossible to separate from the puck like Brad Marchand, Boston isn’t a club that’s usually prone to shooting itself in the foot when it comes to poor puck possession or management.
But turnovers are becoming more and more prevalent with this team over its last couple of matchups — many of which have often put Boston behind the eight-ball. Look no further than Nikolaj Ehlers’ eventual game-winning goal in Winnipeg’s 4-3 win over Boston on Thursday.
A fumble by
Danton Heinen
in the defensive zone goes from a simple miscue into a back-breaking, two-goal deficit for Boston in short order — as the loose puck in the slot skitters around for just a split-second before Ehlers uncorks a blast past Tuukka Rask to close out the scoring for the Jets on the night.
-5: Goal differential in first period
“The other team is taking it to us,”
Bruce Cassidy
said after the loss to Winnipeg. “They're clearly having more energy early on. Some of that could be fatigue in our group. Some of that could be personnel in our lineup that could be a little nervous to get started. We took an O-zone penalty against one of the better power plays. So there's a number of things. It's not one thing. It's different things that usually add up and that was it tonight."
“Our starts, first and foremost – I think we shot ourselves in the foot at the start of every game,”
Patrice Bergeron
said. “Tough to get back in this league. Tough to do that every night. We did it on the tail end of our point streak, but we could tell that we were getting away from what’s been good to us and it’s about getting that back.”
198: Combined points scored for Boston’s current crop of injured skaters
Currently, Boston is without one of its top weapons on the power play (
Torey Krug
- upper body)
, its third defensive pairing (
Matt Grzelcyk
- arm,
Kevan Miller
- upper body) and three top-six options in
David Pastrnak
(thumb surgery),
Jake DeBrusk
(lower body) and
Marcus Johansson
(lung contusion).
It’s quite the feat that Boston has managed to average three goals a game during this three-game road trip — given that the lineup has once again devolved from a balanced forward corps with
Charlie Coyle
stabilizing the third line into a mismatched assortment with Krejci centering Coyle and AHL call-up
Paul Carey,
Trent Frederic
over at the pivot in a bottom-six role.
While Boston’s offense has managed to
, a big part in that was the play of DeBrusk — who tallied eight goals and 15 points in his last 10 games before going on the shelf.
Aside from the tangible offensive production, when you add in what Miller brings as a physical presence on the penalty kill and Grzelcyk’s
, there are numerous facets of the game in which Boston is missing plus-players at their respective positions.
And based on Cassidy’s comments, quite a few of the walking wounded may not be back for at least a couple more games — noting ahead of Thursday’s game: “I don’t know
if we're getting anyone back any time soon."
1:09: Average added TOI for Boston’s veterans in Patrice Bergeron & David Krejci
4:
Points ahead of Toronto in the Atlantic Division
Once again, in an ideal situation — Boston’s 19-game point streak would have made this recent skid a bit easier to bear, especially from a standings perspective. But in the cutthroat Atlantic Division, Boston isn’t afforded that luxury, with the Maple Leafs still just four points behind the Bruins with Boston having now played one more game than Toronto.
With home-ice advantage up for grabs and Boston all but locked into a first-round matchup with the Leafs, Boston needs to right the ship — and fast — or else those six weeks of collecting points are going to be all for naught.
"Listen, I don't like to lose one in a row, so there's always a concern,” Cassidy said. “There's different factors that go into it. I think we've played three very good hockey teams this week. That's part of it, part of it is we need to start on time, so we've put ourselves in a hole. So we're playing catch-up every night. It's a bad formula in the National Hockey League.
“We are introducing some new personnel, so that's going to affect your team. We're leaning on other guys in March that have played a lot of hockey for us, that's not always a great formula either, so we're trying to balance that with winning hockey games. There's a number of things that go into it. I think we've kept the puck out of our net very well this year. You're going to have stretches in the year where you don't, we're in one of those right now and we've got to correct it.”
