5 noteworthy stats from Bruins' post-deadline turnaround

What a difference a deadline makes.

After treading water and holding onto the final playoff spot in the East Division for over a month due to a mix of injuries, COVID complications and general underperformance, the Bruins' deadline deals for Taylor Hall, Mike Reilly and Curtis Lazar seems to have both retooled and reinvigorated the roster — with Boston reeling off four consecutive victories in the past week, including three wins over fellow East Division contenders in the Islanders and Capitals.

And while the contributions of Hall, Lazar and Reilly have already been felt, they are far from the only reason why Boston is suddenly looking like a Cup contender once again in just the span of a few days. Here are a look at some stats worth noting when it comes to sizing up Boston's impressive late-season turnaround — and assessing where there is still plenty of room to grow on this roster.

.947 - Tuukka Rask and Jeremy Swayman's save percentage on high-danger shots

Even though Boston has outscored the Sabres, Islanders and Capitals by a 16-6 margin during its winning streak, a few of these lopsided decisions could have been much closer — had it not been for the play of both Tuukka Rask and Jeremy Swayman in net. Rask has been superb since returning from an upper-body injury that sidelined him for 17 out of a total 18 games for Boston, with the B's No. 1 netminder  posting a .929 save percentage en route to two wins. Swayman has arguably been even better — only relinquishing two goals on 48 total shots this past week (.958 save percentage) while recording his first career shutout on Friday against the Islanders.

And while both netminders are more than holding their own when it comes to handling high volumes of shots and not triggering changes in momentum by coughing up "bad" goals, what has stood out as of late is just how many Grade-A looks, breakaways and other quality chances that Rask and Swayman are turning aside with regularity.

In total, the Sabres, Islanders and Capitals have generated 19 high-danger shots against the Bruins over these last four games — and Boston only letting one of those attempts sail into their net.

(For reference, even boasting a high-danger save percentage of around .820/.830 is pretty spectacular. Even the NHL leader among starting goalies in Andrei Vasilevskiy has a high-danger save percentage of just .858 on the season). 

Rask in particular was impressive on Sunday afternoon against the Caps, with that high-powered Washington offense generating 11 total high-danger looks against Boston in a game that could have been much, much closer than that 6-3 final.

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The play of Swayman has been encouraging, no doubt. But if Boston has its eyes on a fruitful playoff run this summer, it's going to need an effective (and healthy) Rask between the pipes.

"I felt good. Injury-wise, I felt really good," Rask said after Thursday's win over New York. "I felt no pain, nothing whatsoever so that was mission accomplished there. If you sit out, I don't how many weeks, a month, whatever, you're not gonna simulate game-like situations especially with the schedule we have now. "I think I had maybe two, three team practices all together and everything else was with the extra guys and goaltending coach. Conditioning wise, and how I saw the puck today, was not ideal but got the win. I think we played a great game, helped me a lot. Build from this."

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8.3% - Boston's power-play success rate during four-game winning streak

The play of Rask/Swayman might mask just how close some of these decisive victories might have been, but you could also make the argument that Boston could have really run up the score if their power play (especially their top unit) was clicking. Since losing Matt Grzelcyk to injury back on April 10, the Bruins have only cashed in twice on 20 power-play chances — including just one tally in 12 bids during this four-game winning streak.

And even when Boston has managed to generate chances and bury looks on the power play as of late, it's been more of the second unit that's done most of the heavy lifting — with Craig Smith responsible for all three of Boston's power-play strikes over a seven-game stretch.



Even though the addition of Reilly up top has allowed the puck to move with purpose up and around the blue line, the rotation down low has been a bit out of whack. Granted, some of that might be the lack of dedicated practice time with this compacted schedule and additions of guys like Hall to the mix (occasionally shifting Brad Marchand to the netfront as a result), but even with some learning curves, that top power-play unit simply has too much talent to continue to squander chances like this.

"Well, Hall went on there. ... Islanders were pretty packed in," Bruce Cassidy said of the power play on Saturday. "So we're looking at a few different plays, it didn't materialize. ... We just overpassed a little. I thought our execution, our support on entries ,was poor. But I think at the end of the day, quite simply both units got outworked by the Islanders kill. First thing you got to do when you have an extra man is you got to outwork them to get puck possession to get set up. And I don't think we did that well enough. And then we were off with our execution. So our shot selection never really materialized. Something we'll have to work on going forward when we do get some practice time. Maybe we'll go back to the way the units were just for simplicity sake and guys that had worked together and then try to build it in as we go."

For the first time in a long time, the Bruins look to have two legitimate scoring lines at even strength. If they can revive that power play back to its 2018-2020 ways, few opposing teams might have an answer for this club.

11.11% - The Kuraly-Lazar-Wagner line's offensive-zone faceoff percentage

Hall has given Boston a legitimate top-six scoring threat and Reilly's puck-moving ability has been a welcome addition on the blue line, but Curtis Lazar's impact on that fourth line has been just as evident through this small sample size.

Even though Boston's fourth line of Lazar, Sean Kuraly and Chris Wagner's only source of offense so far has been an empty-net tally from their fourth-line pivot on Friday — they've spent most of their shifts together hemming opponents in their own zone and generating quality looks. In total, during the 33:15 of 5v5 ice time that Cassidy has deployed Kuraly-Lazar-Wagner line, the Bruins have held pretty sizable leads in shots on goal (15-9), scoring chances (17-6) and high-danger scoring chances (8-1). That's pretty great for a checking line — especially one that has only had 11.11% of their faceoffs during 5v5 play set in the offensive zone.

With Cassidy able to roll out a line that can not only handle daunting top-six matchups (and unfavorable ice) – but also generate scoring chances during those same shifts — it opens the door for easier matchups for the rest of this B's lineup.

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“Very encouraged,” Cassidy said of his new-look fourth line. “It’s been a staple of this team since I’ve been here and before that. At the start of the game (Thursday) night, it’s a great example of how the game can get tilted in your favor early on. Just a real strong shift, managing the puck, physical against (Adam) Pelech and their D, recovering pucks, getting to the net, just building some momentum early. I know we don’t have the same crowd numbers, but get them into the game, get our bench into the game. Let the other team know we’re here to play. And then again after the second goal, they did the dame thing. It’s 2-0, late in the first period and they go out and put it behind them again. Lazar gets a great chance, but the puck rolls on him a little bit. So that was nice to see them do their job and get rewarded with some O-zone time. And as a result, their minutes reflected it. They got matched a little more against (Mat) Barzal and played the right way all night. And good for them.”

85.71% - The Ritchie-Coyle-DeBrusk line's offensive-zone faceoff percentage

Boston's fourth line might be generating great chances despite starting most of their shifts outside of the O-zone, but the same can't be said for a third line that Boston desperately needs to get going offensively. So far, Cassidy and his staff are handing the Ritchie-Coyle-DeBrusk line plenty of favorable starts — with more than 85% of their faceoffs set in the offensive zone. But, despite the evident talent present among that trio, it hasn't led to much in terms of tangible production — with Boston out-attempted, 37-32, and outscored, 1-0, during the new third line's 35:16. Both the Bergeron and Krejci line's are carving up the competition so far during even-strength play, but if Coyle and Co. can't exploit their matchups against other bottom-six foes and start burying some looks, the ceiling of this B's offense is going to be significantly lowered.

6 - The points separating Boston from the top spot in the East Division

Boston has spent most of the last month looking over its shoulder at the Flyers and now the Rangers when it comes to fellow divisional opponents looking to knock them out of the fourth and final playoff spot in the East — but thanks to this recent surge, the B's could very well find themselves in the driver's seat when it comes to rising up the standings. As of Monday afternoon, the Bruins (56) sit just six points behind the Caps (62) for first place in the East — with three games in hand against Washington. Due to their extended COVID stoppage back in March, the Bruins (43 games played) still have contests in hand against all of the teams above them in the standings, including the Islanders (45 games played, 60 points) and Penguins (45 games played, 59 points).



With seven of their next nine games against the cellar-dwelling Sabres and a Devils team mired in a six-game losing streak (to be fair, New Jersey has given Boston fits this season), the Bruins might control their own destiny when it comes to surging back up these standings and re-establishing themselves as the top dog in the East. Based on their recent play as of late (coupled with the fact that the team is still getting more bodies back on this blue line), this club has still yet to peak in this 2021 campaign. And that should be very, very scary for the rest of the East.

"I don't really think we're looking too much into the standings," David Krejci said. "We obviously know where we're at, but we don't really talk about it. We just want to play the way we're supposed to and I think last four wins — that's the way we want to play. And those wins were against pretty good teams, so we just got to (keep) it going."

Stats via Natural Stat Trick.