When it comes to assessing the talent and production put forth by his players out on the ice, Bruce Cassidy often splits up the merit of his team's efforts into either "A" and "B" games.
When you're on your "A" game, the highlights are rather evident, with said player usually lighting the lamp, cashing in on the power play, orchestrating a Grade-A look with a crafty pass or tilting the scales in favor of your club a scrap.
Those performances might steal most of the headlines, but even when your efforts aren't leading to points on the scoreboard, a "B" game often ensures that you're still making meaningful contributions and pulling on the same rope as your club —be it blocking shots, doling out strong checks, killing penalties, etc.
For Cassidy, a "B" game effort stands as the minimum of what is expected of his players, be it first-line starts or fourth-line grinders.
But on Saturday, no such efforts were to be found.
"We were well down the alphabet after "A" and "B" tonight, unfortunately," Cassidy said Saturday evening.
The Bruins have been on the wrong side of some lopsided scores this season — especially during this hot-and-cold stretch in which Boston has not posted back-to-back wins since way back on Feb. 10 and Feb. 12 against the Rangers. And while a 4-0 loss to the Rangers on Saturday, at first glance, may not be as disheartening as a 6-2 blowout against this same sub-.500 New York last month, all it takes is a quick scan over the game film for this weekend matinee that highlights just how one-sided this drubbing was at TD Garden.
Be it a stagnant power play that failed to cash in on any of its five chances or a listless 5v5 offense that rarely spent much of any time in Grade-A ice, New York goalie Keith Kinkaid could have spent most of his afternoon daydreaming between the pipes and still earned a shutout, because the Bruins didn't generate much of anything against this rebuilding Rangers team.
It wasn't just that the B's were outshot, 33-18, on the afternoon (the lowest shot total for Boston under Cassidy's tenure is 17). It was the fact that just about all of those shots came from the parking lot, rather than right on Kinkaid's doorstep. Even strength, power play, whatever — Boston failed to generate ANY high-danger scoring chances in its 60 minutes out on the ice. That's almost impressive, if not also immensely concerning.
“Well, I don’t think you can put it on one thing,” Cassidy said postgame. “Obviously you see a game like that, as a coach you’re like, ‘Are we tired? Or are we out of shape?’ … At the end of the day, I think it goes to a number of things. But however you rate those things or stack them up, it’s unacceptable.
"Your effort has to be there every night. Effort and execution fall on the players. We didn’t execute well. Our effort ... it was not there with our group. That’s atypical of this group, so that’s probably the most disappointing thing today, is our complete lack of effort and pushback. You’re not going to win every game, no team does. You’re not going to look great every night, but the effort has to be there and the response, and we didn’t have it.”
Of course, anyone who's watched this team for years now can generally trace where these offensive deficiencies stem from. As the Bergeron line goes, so goes the rest of this top-heavy B's offense. And when the Bergeron line is out of gas? Man, does it get ugly.
In the 6:28 of 5v5 ice time in which Patrice Bergeron, David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand were out on the ice, Boston only ATTEMPTED one (1!) shot on goal, with the Rangers holding a 4-0 edge in scoring chances during that stretch. With that tried-and-true trio stuck in neutral, this B's lineup didn't stand a chance, especially once New York started building some breathing room against Jaroslav Halak — who deserved a better fate than the one handed to him on Saturday.
"He obviously was off," Cassidy said of Marchand, who is battling an injury and only logged 16:56 of ice time. "He's a guy that can certainly drive the line some nights with his initial entries. … Bergy was killing more penalties than we'd like, so that might have affected his energy level. They're gonna have off nights. We need other people to pick us up and they've got to get going. Look down the lineup and see some guys who could help us if those three have an off night. We just need other people to get going. ... That's what good teams do. We did not do that today."
Not even the Bruins' regular "get-out-of-jail-free' card in the power play — a useful tool that has overcome a lack of consistent even-strength scoring — could make much of a dent against New York, with the B's only generating three scoring chances over 9:15 of 5v4 ice time.
At one point, a frustrated Cassidy even chucked his whiteboard down in frustration, with another O-zone possession fumbled off of another miscue from the blue line.
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"We never really got in sync on our entry and got settled down and made the plays you're supposed to, force the goalie to make saves," Cassidy said of the B's struggling man advantage, which is stuck in a 4-for-35 rut. "And then the frustration sets in because you're not playing well anyway, you're behind. And it gets away from you and that's what happened. I've created this leadership a lot. And that's where tonight they needed to be better — is take ownership of that say, 'Hey, let's just settle down, run a play.' Run a play, we're on the same page, run an entry where we're going to support one another and get in and build some momentum. We weren't able to do that."
As we noted earlier this week, this Bruins roster is what it is. And even though injuries have significantly thinned out areas of the depth chart and made their margins for success slimmer, it's evident that the talent on this team needs to be supplemented with outside help if this team wants to revive an offense that is dependent on Bergeron and Co. from bailing them out.
Perhaps you could to the accelerated schedule as an area of concern — and perhaps the prime culprit — for Boston's inability to string together strong games. But Matt Grzelcyk doesn't agree with such an assessment, especially given that every other team in the league is in the same boat as far this compressed 56-game slate is concerned.
And while teams like the Islanders, Capitals and Penguins are making the most of the hand dealt to them and piling up points with regularity, the Bruins still find themselves mired in their current predicament — with generally stout goaltending and defensive structure not nearly enough to keep this team afloat.
“I don’t think so,” Grzelcyk said when asked if the B's are fatigued. “Obviously it’s a short season with a lot of games kind of bunching together, but it’s our job as professional athletes to make sure we’re taking care of ourselves away from the rink and getting the proper rest and making sure that physically we feel capable of going out there and doing the job. I don’t think that has anything to do with it.
"Probably moreso mental lack of focus," he added. " It’s kind of unacceptable. I think we’re trying to build a little more consistency in our game and get a win and roll from there, and it seems like we’re kind of, the next night we’re not as sharp as we need to be. We need to make sure we’re bringing it every night. It’s unacceptable right now.”