New England Patriots coach Jerod Mayo made headlines this week when he called his team “soft.” Whether the Boston Bruins are a soft team right now is debatable, but what’s not debatable is that they are playing bad, undisciplined hockey. The latest evidence came Tuesday night in an ugly 4-0 loss to a Nashville Predators team that entered the game with an 0-5-0 record.
You would be hard-pressed to find any positives in this one. The same problems that have plagued the Bruins too often in the early going this season surfaced again on Tuesday. They couldn’t generate offense, they took too many penalties, they didn’t take care of the puck, and coach Jim Montgomery’s lineup changes didn’t work.
The Predators aren’t as bad as their early-season record would suggest, but they are nonetheless a team that was giving up plenty of chances and goals (4.60 per game, in fact) prior to Tuesday. The Bruins, however, couldn’t figure out a way to get a single puck past Juuse Saros.
Saros was good, but he didn’t need to stand on his head. The Bruins registered just two high-danger chances at 5-on-5 play through two periods before finally ramping up the intensity out of desperation in the third and recording five. When they did get scoring chances, they couldn’t finish – sometimes because of Saros, and sometimes because of their own inability to settle the puck or hit the net.
Nothing better summarized the state of the Bruins offense right now than a David Pastrnak breakaway early in the third period that went to waste because he toe-picked as he went to make his move and crashed into Saros.
The Bruins have been a bad offensive team throughout their first seven games. They are tied for 19th in goals per game (3.00), which may not look that bad, but they have been buoyed by a red-hot start from the fourth line and a top-10 shooting percentage at 5-on-5. The underlying metrics look much worse. They rank 30th in 5-on-5 shot attempts per 60 minutes, 29th in shots on goal, 31st in scoring chances, and 28th in expected goals. Their power play is 4-for-29 (13.8%) on the season and has now gone without a goal in four of the last five games.
The Bruins’ lack of discipline has also been an ongoing problem. They took six more minor penalties on Tuesday. They have now taken 39 through seven games, four more than any other team in the NHL.
“It’s discipline,” Montgomery said. “We’re taking far too many stick penalties. You want to prevent scoring chances and take good penalties, and usually you’re going to kill those off. We’re having too many in the offensive zone. We have to sharpen that up.”
Max Jones returned to the lineup after being a healthy scratch Saturday and immediately took two penalties in the first period, an unnecessary interference and then an even more unnecessary trip in the offensive zone that led to a power-play goal for Nashville. He has four penalties in three games as a Bruin. He has also not scored and has just one shot on goal. Riley Tufte has also squandered his opportunities, as he also took two penalties in his most recent game and has zero points and zero shots in two games.
Nikita Zadorov has taken at least one penalty in all seven games of his Bruins tenure, including a hook on Tuesday. He leads the NHL in penalty minutes. David Pastrnak took a hooking penalty just 13 seconds into the game. The usually disciplined star has surprisingly taken five penalties in the last five games. Charlie McAvoy, another team leader, lost control of his stick and took a high-sticking double minor. The Predators technically didn’t score on the ensuing power play, but they did make it 2-0 just two seconds after it ended, before McAvoy even had a chance to get back in the play.
It reflects poorly on Montgomery that this team keeps making the same mistakes and can’t seem to snap out of this early-season funk. It reflects poorly on general manager Don Sweeney that Montgomery doesn’t have any better options to plug into the lineup as he searches for any kind of spark.
Montgomery tried shaking up his entire top nine Tuesday. None of the new lines clicked, as evidenced by the zero goals scored. Subbing in the penalty-prone Tufte and/or a Justin Brazeau who has looked off the pace in the early going wouldn’t seem to be much of a solution for Thursday.
At some point, Sweeney is going to need to waive one of his fringe roster players and give someone else a shot. Tyler Johnson continues to skate with the team on a PTO, but remains unsigned. The versatile veteran could inject some skill and playmaking know-how into the lineup. So could top prospect Fabian Lysell, who just had a two-point weekend for Providence after a quiet first weekend.
The Bruins are 3-3-1. Full-blown panic is not yet warranted. But the Bruins are not playing at all like the team they expected to be, and the longer their offensive struggles and lack of discipline continue, the more concerning it becomes.