At long last, Bruins’ big guns up front are getting some scoring support

In the span of 120:34 of game action this weekend, the Bruins’ usual suspects in Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak accounted for a whopping … one goal scored.

On the man advantage, a tried-and-true strength of this club labored against a pair of underwhelming PK units in Buffalo and Detroit — with Boston going 0-for-7 on its power-play attempts.  

Given everything that we know about the Bruins and the offensive shortcomings that have hampered them for years now — me rattling off those stat lines above is like hearing the set-up for a tired old joke that we’ve heard countless times before.

No power-play contributions? No slew of goals from the 63-37-88 triumvirate? 

So what’s the punchline this time around? Let me guess …. More frustrations on the scoreboard and in the standings — due in large part to a stagnant B’s offensive output.

Har har har.

Perhaps that’s just embracing the doom-and-gloom sentiment that can easily permeate through a fanbase, but such pessimism has unfortunately been validated time and time again when it comes to this team and the lopsided reliance on Bergeron and Co. to bail this team out of offensive futility.

But much to the delight of many B’s fans (and one Bruins writer who has penned far too many columns centered on the scenario declared above), it sure looks as though the 2022 Bruins are thankfully digging into some new material as opposed to going back to that old chestnut. 

“As Bergeron goes, so goes the Bruins” has often been the same ol’ tried mantra when it comes to the fortunes of this roster — but for the first time in a long time, the Bruins' top forwards are finally getting some support further down on the depth chart.

Now, let’s make no mistake here. The Bruins’ reworked top line of Bergeron, Marchand and Craig Smith has been a 5v5 buzzsaw over these last two games — with Bergeron and Smith both lighting the lamp and the B’s holding a 19-3 edge in shots on goal over their 19:20 of 5v5 ice time together.

But by separating Pastrnak from that top line and subsequently reshuffling the rest of the middle-six unit — Bruce Cassidy hoped that more players further down in the lineup would start to put more pressure on themselves when it came to gaining some traction in the O-zone. 

"I think they're elite players,” Cassidy said of Bergeron, Marchand and Pastrnak. “They get their due for obvious reasons. To me, they would have been three easy Olympians this year. So I think that's always going to be around a little bit — that they're going to be relied on and players will lean on them. … So a little bit of the onus falls on the rest of the group to learn from what they do well, not try to be them — but replicate them in certain ways as well. 

“So it's always a battle. I think you look around the league, there's a lot of good strong No. 1 lines and the good teams find a way for the next ones to fall in place and obviously it falls on the coach too to make sure you give them opportunities and minutes to also produce. So I guess I'd say it's a shared responsibility for the coach to divvy up the minutes and for the players to play well with whoever you're out there with.

“And then you get results like tonight.”

Indeed, Bergeron might be the lone Bruin out of the club’s top weapons that managed to find twine over the B’s weekend sweep of the Sabres and Red Wings. 

But the Bruins, in a refreshing change of pace, didn’t need guys like Marchand and Pastrnak to light the lamp early and often.

Along with Bergeron’s first-period tally on Sunday, the B’s received eight other goals during that 120:34 of ice time against Detroit and Buffalo — all eight of which came at even-strength play. 

After Taylor Hall scored his first 5v5 goal since Oct. 20 and a third line of DeBrusk-Coyle-Foligno did plenty of heavy lifting during Saturday’s OT win against the Sabres, it was Boston’s checking unit that rose to the occasion during Sunday’s 5-1 trouncing up in Detroit.

Both Trent Frederic and Tomas Nosek lit the lamp for the B’s in Sunday’s victory, with Oskar Steen complementing that north-south unit with his third helper in four games up in the NHL ranks this year. 

Hall continued his strong play with a crisp set-up on Charlie McAvoy’s fifth goal of the season, while Erik Haula also snapped his scoring drought with a second-period snipe past Alex Nedeljkovic — standing as his first tally since Nov. 13.

“Of course it does,” Haula, who has put together solid returns as Boston’s new 2C, said when asked if his lack of tangible production was getting to him. “The positive about it was that I was getting a lot of good chances. So I was doing something right, obviously. But obviously, some of it is on me and some of it is a little bit of puck luck. I've definitely hit enough posts to go around for this year. So hopefully we can start hitting the net a little more and then go from there. But for sure, frustrating. New year — so hopefully good things are coming.”

Put it all together, and it sure looks as though the floodgates are finally opening for a Bruins team that was expected to put forth a balanced scoring output this season. 

(At least, that was Don Sweeney’s hope after doling out piles of cash this past summer). 

In total, over these past two regulation wins — the Bruins have had 14 different skaters record at least one point. And given that a few of the usual strengths of this club (a top-10 power play, Pastrnak) have still not made much of a dent in the scoresheet, optimism remains that even more tangible production can be generated at a steady clip in due time. 

“We certainly felt we'd score more,” Cassidy said of his roster. “We had some guys in the league that had proven they can score. Some of its secondary, obviously, with the guys we brought in. ... So you're starting to see a product of how we envisioned it. Sometimes it takes a little while to sort of bake. 

“I think Filigno getting hurt early on, Smitty getting hurt early on threw the lines out of whack a little bit and an opportunity to get some chemistry. But teams go through that — injuries, COVID. Hopefully, some of that, or most of it, is behind us and we can stick with the program and see a little more of it in the long term.”

Of course, if the Bruins have any hopes of a second-half surge and a subsequent Cup run — they’re still going to need guys like Marchand, Bergeron and Pastrnak to lead the way. That’s hardly a revelation, I know. 

But unlike in previous seasons in which Boston’s fortunes would often fall solely on the shoulders of a top line and their ability to serve as a cheat code in the offensive zone, the B’s are finally starting to see more segments of their lineup fall into place. 

When they’re on, guys like Bergeron, Marchand and Pastrnak can win you heaps of games by themselves — especially if you’ve got a structured defense in place and plenty of good goaltending. We’ve seen that play out in countless campaigns before. 

But if the Bruins are really going to do some damage in the months ahead, guys like Bergeron and Marchand can’t do it all by themselves.

Thankfully, help seems to have finally arrived. And not a moment too soon.

“I think everyone feels good,” Cassidy said. “Just the way it is. And that's the end goal is you'd like every line to score. Doesn't always work out that way, but we've had a good couple of days.”