BEDFORD – The Boston Bruins have scored at a high rate during this playoff series against the Florida Panthers when it’s weighed in terms of shooting percentage. Sergei Bobrovsky has an .885 save percentage in the series against the Boston Bruins through the first four games and certainly has shown that he can be beaten, particularly upstairs where the B’s have pounded pucks when they’ve been around the net.
The problem is the Black and Gold are not getting anywhere close to the net most of the time and are being outshot 146-79 while losing the territorial battle in a big way during the four games that the Bruins and Panthers have played to this point. The good news is that Jeremy Swayman is still stopping pucks at a league-leading .930 clip, so the red-hot netminder is going to be able to keep Boston in those games where they are being vastly outgunned.
And while it’s true that the Bruins are about quality over quantity when it comes to shots on net and scoring chances in an overall offensive philosophy, it is never a good look for any team to essentially be outshot 2-to-1 in any playoff series as is happening right now. It’s been particularly stark in the last three games since the Panthers have found their footing after being idle for a week while the Bruins finished out their seven-game first-round series against the Maple Leafs.
“We’re not a volume-shooting team. We’re trying to get quality. In a perfect world, you get both quality and quantity. We have three breakaways [Sunday] night [where] you can extend the lead [but weren’t able to score],” said Don Sweeney. “Game 2 we’re in a 2-1 hockey game, we don’t execute at the end of the period, and they take the momentum. Playoff hockey. We definitely needed to do a better job of recognizing some offensive situations and remaining tight defensively, staying above and playing behind, creating as much traffic as possible.
“We haven’t had a lot of rebound opportunities in this series, I think we have to generate a little more of that with the intention of going to the harder areas of the ice. Our defense has to be a little more active to be able to get pucks through and change their lanes. Give the other team credit for blocking shots and just do a better job. We’re behind in the series because they’ve executed better than we have.”
While they are not a volume-shooting team, the Bruins do need to take a little bit more of that mentality because Bobrovsky hasn’t been great in this series. Pat Maroon said it’s about getting back to simple, good hockey playing more predictably while doing things that will allow them to have more offensive zone time than they’ve been able to muster to this point in the playoff series.
“We’re not shooting enough from the top and we’re not getting enough traffic. We need to find a way to get those second and third opportunities where we’re creating havoc and jumping on those loose pucks in the corner. We need to throw more pucks to the net and take more pucks to the net when we have the opportunity. We’re not doing it. When they have 44 shots to our 18 sometimes you can sneak away with a win, but they’ve been doing it the last four games. We need more volume, we need more shots and we need to be more predictable and kind of get back to the basics.”
To Maroon’s point, Charlie McAvoy has yet to even land a single shot on net in four games during this Florida series because they Bruins aren’t using the points enough, and because McAvoy continues to predictably pass the puck in situations where a good, hard shot around the net would do more offensive good.
What is predictable hockey?
“I think predictable hockey and Bruins hockey is simple. Getting on the forecheck, pucks high-to-low, pucks to the net and create second and third opportunities,” said Maroon. “Get the rebound, get pucks back up high and shot volume to put them under stress a little bit more. We haven’t done that on the O-zone. It’s been more one-and-done [in the offensive zone].”
The bottom line is that the Bruins aren’t going anywhere until they can start consistently crossing over the 20 shots on net per game mark in this series, and they have not been able to do that since a Game 1 that’s looking more like the outlier given Florida’s rustiness headed into that contest.
MARCHAND A NO-GO
Despite taking part in the morning skate, Bruins coach Jim Montgomery told reporters that Brad Marchand is not available for Game 5.