At this point, it’s probably time for everyone around the Boston Bruins to rethink the way they go about winning hockey games.
It’s been obvious since the start of this season that the Black and Gold crew wasn't going to overwhelm opponents offensively and would need to instead rely on the same stalwart defense, high-level goaltending and occasional offense formula that has worked consistently for them in the past.
It’s been clear as they sit 32nd in the NHL averaging 2.32 goals per game and 31st in the NHL with a team averaging a 12 percent success rate on the power play.
They’ve only had one six-goal explosion in the five games under new interim head coach Joe Sacco and have averaged just two goals per game over the span with a paltry, unsatisfying two goals in three home games at TD Garden – including Friday night’s tight 2-1 loss to the Penguins -- during that time as well.
It isn’t exactly exciting hockey when it comes to entertaining the home fans as evidenced by the unrest at the end of some of their recent periods of play, but it can actually be really effective as more of their players dig in for gritty goals.
The Bruins are getting more offensive chances, enjoying more people getting involved offensively and generally playing a more energetic, recognizable brand of hockey. Now it’s just a matter of ironing out some of the breakdowns, Andrew Peeke struggled in particular in the D-zone, and executing as they couldn’t at the end of the second period when the Penguins scored with 0.8 seconds on the clock.
The Bruins coaches had Elias Lindholm, Charlie Coyle and Pavel Zacha on the ice to take the draws in their own zone, but Lindholm lost cleanly to Sidney Crosby with Erik Karlsson, Crosby and Rickard Rakell working to score on a slick play after the face victory in the offensive zone.
Sidney Crosby sets up Rickard Rakell for the tying tally with just .8 seconds left in the 2nd!#LetsGoPens pic.twitter.com/7OTzXgOU32
— Hockey Daily 365 l NHL Highlights & News (@HockeyDaily365) November 30, 2024
That allowed the Penguins to gain a foothold in a game they were trailing 1-0 and ultimately allowed for a needed victory in the third where Pittsburgh simply made one more play than Boston did over the final 20 minutes.
“It was a couple of different areas where we weren’t at our best tonight,” said Bruins coach Joe Sacco. “One was our execution seemed to be a little bit off at times. And then we just had a couple of missed assignments, and they’re a good offensive team, we talked about that before the game. Certainly, they still have some high-end talent over there, and they’ll make you pay if you miss assignments.”
The bigger issue for the Black and Gold? They got caught up in trying to play the up-and-down, chance-for-chance game with a Penguins team that wants to play that way, rather than stay locked into the get it deep, forecheck and suffocate them defensively style that the Bruins want to employ these days.
“It was there for us. I thought our first period was pretty decent. We jump out to an early lead and it’s what you do after that…I don’t think anybody would say they liked how we played after that,” said Coyle, who scored the only goal for the Bruins on a well-executed three-man rush in the first period and nearly tied it in the third on a play where Kris Letang had to dive into the crease to block his shot attempt. “We changed up our game and stopped doing the things that were getting us opportunities in their end. We kind of strayed away from it. It just shouldn’t happen that way.
“I felt like we eased up a bit. Sometimes it’s kind of natural to be that way, but the good teams bring that focus no matter what happens. We started playing how they wanted to play [with rush attempts] and that was just feeding into them more and more. They’re kind of playing in our end more often than not, we’re on the defensive end and then we’re overthinking our game, and it snowballs from there.”
Of course, they’ve also allowed just nine goals in those five games as well, so the defense and the goaltending are giving them a chance to win in all of these games. It’s just going to be a matter of getting comfortable winning one-goal games with scores of like 2-1 or 3-2 rather than being able to pull away from teams like they had in the recent past.
“It’s the details, it’s the process that we’re sticking to, and we’re getting rewarded for it in a lot of ways,” said Jeremy Swayman, who has seen his save percentage climb up to .892 after a couple of strong performances following the coaching change. “I know that we’re not getting the results as of right now, every single game, but that’s going to compound and we’re going to start getting the results game after game.”
The Bruins certainly had their chances, once again, and outshot the Penguins 12-8 in the third period with a number of prime scoring opportunities along with a wasted third-period power play chance. But it’s becoming clear that they are going to find themselves in a lot of tight, one-goal games one way or the other, and need to start drawing confidence and comfort in those situations.
Honestly, it’s only going to help them come playoff time provided they can consistently execute the style that suits their current roster. And even after a fairly frustrating loss to the Penguins, the Bruins still find themselves in the playoff picture clinging to a wild card spot while tied at 25 points apiece with the New York Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers.
When it’s all said and done, the Bruins should be drawing confidence from the fact that they are in that spot while still not having come close to scratching the surface of their potential as a hockey team this season. But they absolutely need to start finding more offense if they want to sustain where they are in the division and complement the other facets of their game that are truly coming around.