4 shots, 4 goals: How an already stout Bruins power play became downright devastating in Game 3

ST. LOUIS — Through the first two games of the 2019 Stanley Cup Final, a Bruins power-play unit that had managed to cash in on 34.0% of its bids through the first three rounds of the postseason wasn’t exactly pulling any punches.

While the man advantage had plummeted down to a 20% success rate during a pair of matchups against the Blues at TD Garden, the Bruins’ special-teams corps remained an omnipresent thorn in the side of St. Louis  — with tallies from Charlie McAvoy and Charlie Coyle in Games 1 and 2, respectively, making it six consecutive postseason games in which Boston’s power play has struck gold.

Not too shabby.

But following Wednesday’s overtime loss to St. Louis on home ice, Bruce Cassidy had more than his fair share of gripes with his top unit. Sure, Coyle’s wrister from the slot during 5v4 play might have opened the scoring just 4:44 into regulation, but the remaining four stretches of game action that featured a Blues skater in the box left much more to be desired.

After Coyle’s goal in Game 2, Boston had an additional 6:17 of 5v4 ice time. During that stretch, it only managed to generate three shots on goal, one high-danger scoring chance and most telling — zero goals.

“I don’t think we executed as well, force them to defend in their zone,” Cassidy said of the shortcomings of his top unit on Wednesday. “Obviously we had one clean entry resulted in a goal. A couple others we had a little bit of time.

"I thought they did a better job cutting off the top so we got stuck in the half wall, then your force of play. Should’ve made some adjustments when that happened to start to create movement away from the puck, but by the time we did that they were on us. Better clears they had tonight. That’s about it and it’s on us to actually get better at the end of the day and move a little more.”

Three nights later, what was once a candid stream of consciousness from Boston’s bench boss when it came to the performance of his power play had managed to boil down one singular belief.

Or perhaps disbelief is actually the best way to put.

After all, in Cassidy’s 23 years coaching pro hockey, he’d never seen such an efficient, dominant performance executed by a power play — let alone on the stage of Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final.



On a night meant to celebrate St. Louis’ first Cup Final game held on home ice in over 17,000 days, Boston drained most of the life out of what was once a raucous Enterprise Center crowd by way of a seven-goal barrage — with 12 different B’s skaters recording a point in what was an eventual 7-2 thrashing.

Most of that damage (surprise, surprise) was carried out on the power play, with Boston going a perfect 4-for-4 on the night. A fantastic showing, for sure. But what made Boston’s big guns truly lethal was the efficiency in which they picked apart Jordan Binnington, Jake Allen and Blues — as the Bruins only managed to fire four shots on goal in the 2:06 of PP TOI. Of course, all four of those shots found twine.



“No, I haven’t,” Cassidy said postgame when asked if he’d ever seen a power play score four goals on four shots. “I think in terms of confidence, they know they have the ability to score and generate offense. They hadn’t, in the first two games, very small sample size, but it was talked about — they’re not going offensively. One of the ways you get going offensively is to finish their chances.”

Obviously, cashing in on the quality looks presented to you is the simplest formula for power-play proficiency — something that lacked at times earlier this series during whiffed one-timers or lackluster seam feeds.

But for Cassidy, it was more the manner in which these scoring chances were generated — rather than the end result — that set this power-play performance apart.

Sometimes, a quality scoring chance can be drummed up out of nothing, manufactured by either a bit of extra effort or just some good ‘ol tinkering. Boston’s first power play goal of the night was generated thanks to Cassidy and Co. reading what the Blues were giving them and adjusting on the fly.

The Blues’ PK structure has largely been a familiar sight for the Bruins this postseason, with St. Louis usually stacking three skaters around the high slot — and most importantly, around Patrice Bergeron in the bumper — in order to intercept seam passes and keep puck movers like Torey Krug and Brad Marchand away from operating along the half wall.

Having learned their lesson, the Bruins shunned its half-wall playmaking in favor of shots generated up high. Taking away the bumper might limit Bergeron’s ability to facilitate the puck toward other Grade-A areas of the ice, but with some space opened up for Krug at the blue line, Bergeron could either screen Binnington down low — or, in this case, tip Krug’s attempt home to put Boston on the board.



“The faceoff play is a set play, we’ve run some certain looks,” Cassidy said. “Had some real trouble getting (the puck) into Bergeron from the bumper from the half wall, so we tried from the top, it was a nice tip.”

Opting for more low-to-high plays once again stretched out the Blues on Boston’s second power-play strike of the night, with St. Louis’ pursuit of the puck allowing David Pastrnak to camp out down low next to Binnington and wait for a feed to come back his way. With Tyler Bozak skating into the high slot to try and challenge Krug and Robert Bortuzzo out of position while trying to assist on a puck battle along the boards, Pastrnak had plenty of space to flip a backhand shot home to give Boston a 4-0 lead at the time.



Add in the strong sequence from Krug and Marchand up top to keep a puck in the O-zone in the seconds before Krug’s own power-play goal, and the Bruins seemed to do just about everything right when it came to hitting the Blues where they least expected it.



Therein lies the biggest challenge when it comes to slowing down this Bruins power play. After getting torched Saturday, the Blues could very well adjust their own PK scheme to account for Krug and more low-to-high plays — but at what cost?

Do you give Bergeron more space to operate in the bumper, or take a body away from a seam pass that Pastrnak will be waiting for while lurking in the left circle? It’s a lose-lose situation, and it’s part of the reason why this Bruins man advantage boasts the second-best success rate (35.9%) of any team in NHL playoff history — trailing only the 1981 Islanders (37.8%).

Boston has the personnel that can impose its will against even the most stout PK units, but even Krug — who became the first Bruin to posting four or more points (1G, 3 A) in a Stanley Cup Final game — was quick to credit the man pulling the strings from the bench. 

"Bruce does a great job of giving us cues that if this player does this, than this is the option that we’re going to have and the opportunity that we’re going to have to score a goal. We’ve been able to, after 10 power plays through two games, point out some things. Without giving it away, we’re trying to take advantage of it now. I think his knowledge of the game, his X’s and O’s are second to none. … I’m glad we have him."

And as for that Islanders record? Well, there's at least a couple more games to go.

"We can’t look ahead and think that we played great tonight," Marchand said. "We played good, but we can be better."