As the bodies go down for the Boston Bruins, it is going to get damn near impossible for the B’s to post any kind of offensive numbers.
That goes doubly so when David Pastrnak can’t crack the score sheet, so it’s really no surprise that the Bruins were shut out by the Minnesota Wild, 1-0, at the Excel Energy Center as No. 88’s 17-game point streak finally came to a close on Sunday. When the Bruins game-breaking force is silent, there really isn’t anybody else able to fully step up with key contributors Charlie McAvoy, Hampus Lindholm, Trent Frederic and now Brad Marchand out of the lineup due to an array of injuries.
“It was a well-played game for both teams, especially defensively away from the puck. Hard-fought game,” said Joe Sacco. “Not a lot of easy ice out there. Just unfortunate. We have to have the mindset that we’re all going to contribute [offensively] down the stretch. I think that is important.”
The old adage is that injuries create opportunity for other players, but it’s as much opportunity to prove that they don’t belong as much as its opportunity to step up and get noticed for your play.
Many fans were clamoring for the Bruins kids to get called up from Providence to get a chance to show what they could do with playoff hopes slipping away from the Black and Gold, and it was Georgii Merkulov getting those opportunities this weekend. He finished with zero points in the two games and couldn’t even manage a shot on net (or even an attempt) in 13 plus minutes against the Wild in a game where the B’s needed an offensive spark to generate from somewhere.
At this point, the Bruins don’t have many places they can go for offensive firepower outside of the Morgan Geekie-Pavel Zacha-David Pastrnak trio that’s been carrying them for most of the last two months, and with Marchand now missing as the only other player that was consistently providing offense outside that trio.
It’s just another reason why opposing goalies are beginning to look like the second-coming of Ken Dryden, and on Sunday it was Filip Gustavsson after earlier this week it was Ilya Sorokin and the New York Islanders. Sure, these goalies are NHL caliber and that means they are good. But the Bruins are very clearly going through another one of those meager stretches where the offense isn’t flowing, and valuable points are going by the boards.
“You’ve got to throw a little more [at the net] and take away his eyes,” said Charlie Coyle, who has goals in three of the last 25 games for the Bruins. “You’ve got to find a way. That’s how hockey goes sometimes, but we’ve got to stay with it and continue doing the right things consistently.
“It’s a mindset thing. Everybody has to have the belief they can put the puck in the net. But we can’t get away from the details and what is getting us the puck and those opportunities. That’s what we have to hone in on, especially coming off a game where we didn’t have any goals. We need that secondary scoring and we need guys to take that responsibility, including myself, and find ways to provide offense.”
Should the Bruins have won on Sunday, they could have pushed their way back into an Eastern Conference wild card spot that’s absolutely up for grabs at this point in the season. But now they’ve flubbed away another possible two points with future games against the Hurricanes, Panthers and Lightning coming up in the next week where it’s going to be very difficult, nigh impossible, to collect points.
But that’s what this season has evolved into as it heads into the NHL trade deadline, a hockey team dying by 1000 paper cuts as they slowly bleed out due to injuries and the same old flaws rearing their head in a lost season careening toward next week’s NHL trade deadline.
ONE TIMERS
*Count Brad Marchand among the supporters for David Pastrnak’s Hart Trophy candidacy as he continues to light it up offensively down the stretch to keep the B’s playoff hopes flickering among long odds.
“He should be very high in the MVP candidate race,” said Marchand earlier this week of Boston’s game-breaker with 19 goals and 38 points in 23 games since the New Year. “He’s on another level and it’s impressive to watch him every night with the things he does. He just creates so much for this group.
“He’s leading the charge right now. We know. We get to see it every day so we know the talent that he is. But he’s rising to another level right now where he’s one of the best in the league and it is fun to watch.”
*The Bruins have cycled through a number of forwards and defensemen from Providence over the course of the season amidst injuries, but at this point both Max Jones and Riley Tufte both look like massive busts. The 27-year-old Tufte has had multiple looks at the NHL level this season and has really shown nothing as a big-bodied wing with a little offensive touch, and Jones has been stuck in Providence after signing a two-year, $2 million contract this summer.
Both have been productive enough in Providence, but it’s pretty telling that Jeffrey Viel was called up to Boston this weekend ahead of those more heralded offensive performers.
The Bruins' pro scouting staff has normally done a really good job of identifying players that can flourish in their system after toiling in other organizations, but it feels like both these guys were misses.
*Congrats to David Pastrnak on a 17-game scoring streak that ended in Sunday’s shutout loss to the Minnesota Wild, the longest stretch for a Czech-born player in NHL history that is pretty impressive. Only three players in B’s history have had longer point streaks with Adam Oates, Phil Kessel and Ray Bourque on that list…not too shabby.
*How does a player like Georgii Merkulov not even register a shot attempt in a game like Sunday’s shutout loss to the Wild? Fabian Lysell will undoubtedly be brought up at some point with Boston looking for him to show what he can do offensively, and it will undoubtedly be the same story for him as well. With each passing stint for both players, it’s widely evident that there’s an NHL talent gap between Matt Poitras and both Merkulov and Lysell when it comes to long term viability in Boston.