For all intents and purposes, Wednesday’s off day in Pittsburgh was expected to be an afternoon of rest — with a majority of Boston’s regulars given a brief window to lick their wounds and rest their bones from an ongoing 82-game marathon.
During the time in which the PPG Paints Arena ice was available for the B’s, only scratches such as Jack Studnicka, Anton Blidh and Josh Brown took to the sheet in order to shake off some rust.
Well, and Brad Marchand.
"He went on his own, grabbed Chris Kelly to walk him through some things,” Bruce Cassidy said of Marchand. “Not surprised.”
At this point in the NHL calendar, you could make a compelling argument that a franchise stalwart like Marchand warrants more than just practices off. Given his importance to the club — and the amount of damage he’s sustained over the last seven months — Marchand very well could be bubble-wrapped from now until the end of next week, and few B’s fans would protest.
But for Marchand, Wednesday’s session was a necessity, especially given his recent O-zone woes.
"That had more to do with ... I haven't obviously been overly happy with my game the last little while and typically when that happens, the only thing to do is kind of work through it," Marchand said. "So I just felt it was good to get out there and touch the puck and feel it and get a skate in.”
Be it the need for more work on his one-timer (especially with David Pastrnak still on the mend) or just more selective shots in order to break out of a scoring lull (one goal in nine games), there was a method to the madness when it came to Marchand’s on-ice work.
By the time the dust had settled on Thursday’s 4-0 loss to the Penguins, more Bruins likely wished that they took a page out of Marchand’s book.
Marchand finished Thursday’s contest in Pittsburgh with a team-high eight shots on goal. His linemate in Jake DeBrusk followed suit with five shots of his own. In fact, every single B’s skater landed at least one puck in against Pens netminder Casey DeSmith.
Even without Pastrnak’s trusty one-timer in Boston’s arsenal, the Bruins had no issue at all peppering the Pens’ net, finishing the evening with 52 total shots on goal.
That’s all well and good.
But the “quality over quantity” cliche always rings true in hockey, with a 50+ shot tally ringing pretty hollow on a night in which none of those pucks found the back of the net.
In what has been a season-long trend, Boston once again let quality chances fall to the wayside during a night in which volley after volley sailed towards an opponent’s net. Even though the underlying metrics presented Boston with nine high-danger chances during 52:37 of 5v5 ice time, Cassidy had little to point to when it came to quality looks for his club — at least when contrasted by the chances that Jake Guentzel and Jason Zucker were able to bury against Jeremy Swayman.
"We're in between on a D-line change and all of a sudden, Guentzel's behind us," Cassidy said. "And the next one, we talked about three high in the neutral zone and our forwards are a step behind and when they're in all alone, those are Grade-A chances. I don't believe we got any of those, that I can recall. ... So they did a good job keeping us to the outside.
“We got a lot of shots on net. I thought they kept the front of their net clean on the original shot a lot. We were able to generate some rebound chances eventually, but not the screens probably as much as we'd like. But that first 10 minutes or whatever stretch of time it was, first 5-6 minutes (in the second period) could have changed the complexion of the game. … We need to finish better.”
not sure what was better the touch pass by Carter or the finish by Zucker pic.twitter.com/IwnXcQVOHn
— Spoked Z (@SpokedZ) April 22, 2022
While these recent woes on the power play (now an 0-for-29 rut) have captured most of the headlines when it comes to cataloging Boston’s offensive futility, the B’s struggles when it comes to consistently generating quality chances have been a season-long issue — with only the LA Kings featuring a lower shooting percentage than Boston’s 8.4 percent.
Pastrnak’s return — potentially as soon as Sunday — will provide a serious shot in the arm, both on the power play and even-strength action. Hampus Lindholm getting the green light to play on potentially the same day will also grant Boston more of an offensive spark, be it in transition or via some much-needed shots from the blue line.
The Bruins may not exactly have the personnel to win shootouts against offenses like Toronto, Florida and Colorado. But they can sure make things a lot easier on themselves in the offensive zone by favoring Grade-A chances over a flurry of low-danger shots.
"Yeah, he made some great saves,” Patrice Bergeron said of DeSmith. “But let's also be honest — we've got to get to the inside a little more, try to retrieve some rebounds, and the good old cliche of trying to get in front and make it harder for him. Some good looks as well, some plays that you wish you would finish, especially in the second — I thought we had some pretty good looks that we could have changed the game and momentum a little bit. And obviously, it's up to us to do that. ... I think we can we can be better at bearing down when we do have those good looks."