Bruins' OT win over Oilers once again highlighted a glaring flaw up front

There weren't too many surprises with the final box score on Wednesday night. 

Well, at least as far as scoring goes, that is. After all, there are not many nights when the second-ranked power play in the NHL lays an egg with an 0-for-7 showing.

But even with the Bruins’ recent power outage on the man advantage, Boston’s big guns still did enough heavy lifting to secure a 2-1 overtime victory over the Oilers — marking the B’s 10th win their last 11 games. 

The OT winner? To the surprise of very few, it was David Pastrnak who provided the heroics, closing out the content at Rogers Place with his 43rd goal of the season just 1:14 into the extra frame. 

The other tally on the night came during 5v5 play from the club’s second-leading goal scorer in Patrice Bergeron, who took a slick feed from Brad Marchand (one assist on the night) and tucked a puck past Edmonton goalie Mike Smith for his 27th goal of the year, and his fifth in the last six games.

The only other scorers on the evening for Boston was another pair of regular contributors on the stat sheet in Torey Krug (one assist) and David Krejci, who orchestrated Pastrnak’s breakaway bid in OT thanks to a fantastic feed from Boston’s own zone.

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As for the rest of Boston's forward corps? Well, the chances were there against the Oilers, with Boston generating 15 scoring chances and eight high-danger bids in what was just 33:33 of 5v5 ice time (a byproduct of a game with 12 combined penalties).

But, in what has been a flaw all season long for the Bruins when it comes to 5v5 scoring, there can be a rather large gap between generating these quality looks — and finishing them.



The brilliance of Boston's 63-37-88 line and the sustained production generated by the power play have done a good job of masking Boston's struggles when it comes to converting on 5v5 scoring chances over the last couple of seasons. A year removed from ranking 19th overall in the NHL with just 157 tallies during 5v5 play, those numbers have marginally improved to 124 goals over 61 games, good for 14th in the league.

But on nights like Wednesday, in which Boston's usually well-oiled machine on the power play is knocked out of whack, the onus tends to fall on Boston's big weapons to bail them out during 5v5 situations.

"I think there was a lot of forced shots," Bruce Cassidy said of Boston's power play. "I think we got away from our structure at times. The adjustments we try to make aren't always happening on the ice, so we'll revisit that. I think we've had it pretty good on the power play here for a lot of years, so right now, in the last week, for a little bit of a stretch here, it's not coming as easily. They're taking away some of our options and we have to be less stubborn and take what's available, and then there's just stretches when the puck doesn't go in.

"Bergy has some good bumper looks that haven't gone in. Coyle had a rebound I don't know how it didn't go in. Sometimes you go through those stretches, but we need to generate a little more, stay with the structure a little more. But again, we'll look at it, talk to the players. If we need to make an adjustment with personnel, we will. Otherwise it's on to Calgary and hopefully we're better here."

Based on the track record of this man advantage, it seems like a given that the numbers are going to fall back in Boston's favor in short order. As for 5v5 scoring? Well, the Bruins likely wouldn't be on the prowl for a top-six scorer like Chris Kreider and Kyle Palmieri if they were getting more consistent finishing from their other wingers outside of Pastrnak and Marchand.

Boston's issues when it comes to a lack of quality looks might be best illustrated when comparing the B's expected goals rate with the rest of the league.

(For Reference: Expected goals accounts for both shot quantity and quality by factoring in multiple shot factors, including the type of shot, distance from the net, angle, 5v5, power play, penalty kill, etc. So a team with a high expected goals for rate means that they're generating plenty of high-quality shots that should be generating goals. Vice versa, a team with a low expected goals against rate means the opposition isn't generating quality looks against them.)



Based on Sean Tierney's chart above, the Bruins are ... well, kinda dull. Defensively, they're the best in the business with an expected goals against per 60 minutes rate of 1.96 — tops among all NHL clubs. But on offense, their expected goals for per 60 minutes rate of 2.20 is near the bottom of the pack. In fact, the only teams with lower xGF/60 are the Devils, Sabres, Red Wings and Jets — four teams with a combined record of 95-120-27.

Translation? The Bruins' forwards aren't generating enough quality looks — and plenty of that can be chalked up to constant shuffling and lack of consistent scoring found within the team's middle-six grouping.

Wednesday was a particularly tough night for both Krejci and Charlie Coyle's lines, with Boston out-attempted (10-8), out-shot (6-3) and limited to one high-danger scoring chance in the 12:23 of combined 5v5 ice time that both forward groupings logged against Edmonton.

Ultimately, the OT heroics of Pastrnak was enough to secure another two points in the standings up at Rogers Place. But if Boston wants to get back to the Cup Final (and carve out a different result), the writing remains on the wall when it comes to the Bruins' need to add another established threat up front.

The clock keeps ticking...