The Bruins have been playing much better hockey in just about all facets of the game over the last two weeks, going 5-1-0 in their last six games with all five wins coming against teams that are either in the playoffs or within a point of the playoffs.
Playoff goalie rotation looking more likely for Bruins?
One area where they continue to struggle, though, is on the power play. The Bruins’ man advantage did finally snap an 0-for-13 drought in Saturday’s win over the Panthers, but is still 1-for-15 over the last five games, and 2-for-24 over the last eight.
All five members of the Bruins’ top power-play unit – Charlie McAvoy, David Pastrnak, Brad Marchand, Pavel Zacha and James van Riemsdyk – hit the ice early Monday morning to get some extra work in before practice officially started. They got more work in during the main practice as well.
After practice, Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said he believes the problems stem from a lack of confidence and guys just not seeing plays that are there to be made. The two could be related.
“I think it is [confidence], and I also think it's mentally,” Montgomery said Monday. “We talked to them today, we had a meeting. Guys aren't seeing plays that are there. They're not seeing it in practice sometimes. Surprising. Like, I know it's easy, I'm standing there, I'm watching, but if my old eyes can see it, they should be seeing it.
“And that's where I think their mindset needs to be about what we're going to do instead of, ‘Oh, I wonder if it's not going to work again.’ And that's natural. And I think that the details of everybody in their position needs to be better. We need to have a shot-first mentality from the elbows and from the top. We need our bumper to be more active. We need our net-front guy to take away eyes better and do drive-by screens and make more plays from the goal line. It's everybody doing their job better.”
Montgomery highlighted Saturday’s power-play goal, scored by Charlie Coyle with assists to Marchand and Pastrnak, as an example of looking for a play, seeing it’s there, and attacking.
“The goal we scored [Saturday], it’s a great entry, and it's an attack mindset right off the entry,” Montgomery said. “Marchand could have just pulled up and given it to 73 [McAvoy], but instead he took two steps in and then Charlie [Coyle] is open. So, it has to be more natural like that, and consistent.”
This is all stuff the Bruins’ big guns are smart enough to know. It’s all stuff they’ve done before. They’re not trying to reinvent the power-play wheel. It’s just a matter of doing it consistently and breaking recent bad habits that have caused them to be too slow and too stationary.
Injury updates on Brazeau and Maroon
Deadline acquisition Pat Maroon continues to practice with the team, and the target date for his Bruins debut remains Saturday night in Pittsburgh.
Montgomery said that Maroon, who underwent back surgery in February, will not be an option for Tuesday’s home game against the Carolina Hurricanes, but that the plan is for him to play Saturday as long as he gets through the week OK and gets final clearance after Friday’s practice and Saturday’s morning skate.
The addition of Maroon to the lineup will be a welcome one given the size, physicality and puck protection he can bring, especially in the wake of Justin Brazeau’s injury last week.
Speaking of which, Brazeau skated with Derek Forbort prior to Monday’s practice, but is still considered week-to-week. Because his injury was upper body – most likely something with his right arm – skating alone doesn’t tell us a whole lot about how close or not close he is to returning. At the very least, it seems unlikely that Brazeau will play in any of the four remaining regular-season games.
Grzelcyk aiming to build confidence for playoffs
Matt Grzelcyk knows there are those who doubt him come playoff time. He knows this hasn’t been his best regular season overall. And he knows his spot in the lineup isn’t necessarily safe right now.
He feels pretty good about his game over the last month or so, though, and he’s just trying to focus on continuing that in order to put himself in the best position possible when the postseason begins.
“I feel like probably ever since the last month or so, it's trending in the right direction,” Grzelcyk told WEEI on Monday. “Just playing with some different guys, trying to build some chemistry with them the next couple of games here. I feel like I've kind of had to do that my whole career. Obviously I've played a lot with Charlie [McAvoy], but early on in my career I kind of bounced around there a little bit. So, it’s something that I’m comfortable doing and leaning on those experiences in the past. I think it's been going pretty good.”
Grzelcyk had been playing mostly with McAvoy again this season, but Montgomery has decided to pair McAvoy with Hampus Lindholm in recent games. Grzelcyk was a healthy scratch three games ago in Nashville. He was on the third pairing with Andrew Peeke two games ago in Carolina. On Saturday against Florida, he got moved up to the second pairing with Brandon Carlo.
There are some differences between playing with Carlo or Peeke vs. McAvoy. Grzelcyk explained that he might need to be the one going forward and jumping into the offense more when he’s with Carlo or Peeke, whereas he sometimes needs to be more of the defensive security blanket when he’s with McAvoy, who is much more active offensively.
Regardless of his partner, though, Grzelcyk knows there were foundational pieces of his game that he needed to clean up.
“I think just get back to being cleaner with the puck on the breakout and through the neutral zone,” Grzelcyk said. “I think I was probably at times just not taking enough initiative myself and differing to my partner, other guys on the ice. I think try to make it a point of emphasis to get my feet moving. And I think doing that offensively, it helps my gap going the other way. I think that's been a focus of our group in general. We were kind of struggling there for a bit. I think just getting our D pressed up in the O-zone, I think it's worked well both ways, allowed us to close up plays before they happen. We were probably spending a little too much time in our D-zone. So, I think it's been going well for us recently.”
As for the playoffs, Grzelcyk knows from experience that he needs to raise his game to yet another level. He is well aware of the increased physicality and intensity that’s coming.
“I think my focus right now is just to keep playing well going into the playoffs, and hopefully that will give me some confidence,” he said. “The game changes a little bit. It's a little more physical game. So, making sure I'm getting back first on pucks and having an idea of what I'm going to do with the puck. Obviously teams are pretty heavy forechecking teams in the playoffs. Draw back on some good experiences I've had as well.
“So, yeah, I think just look back on what I've had success with and play to my strengths. I know my limitations as well. I'm not always going to want to have to put myself in positions to battle net-front against much bigger guys. Obviously, there's times where you’re just gonna have to do that, but just be smart and pick the areas that I want to excel at and I think just raise my compete level, for sure. That's what that time requires, and that's what everyone needs to do.”
DeBrusk, Frederic running cold
Separate from the power play, two forwards the Bruins would like to get going are Jake DeBrusk and Trent Frederic.
DeBrusk was hot for most of March, posting 12 points in 10 games from March 4-23, but now he’s cooled off again, going six games without a point.
Frederic has gone five games without a point and has been a little too quiet offensively since the start of March, registering four points (2 goals, 2 assists) in the last 17 games.
Now the two are playing on the same line, with Jesper Boqvist as their center on Boston’s third line. DeBrusk had been playing on the second line with Marchand and Coyle, but Montgomery has used Morgan Geekie there instead the last couple games.
Boqvist scored the overtime winner Saturday, but at 5-on-5, the new-look third line has been pretty quiet so far. By DeBrusk’s own admission, their first game together on Thursday was “sloppy.” He thinks they took a step in the right direction on Saturday, though.
“I like the speed aspect of the line,” DeBrusk said. “I think that me and Freddy are both pretty good shooters as well. I think it was a little bit better game [Saturday], but I think anything with chemistry takes a little bit of time.”
Montgomery has also said he likes the idea of DeBrusk and Boqvist’s speed together, and was encouraged by DeBrusk’s play in particular on Saturday.
“Just be tenacious,” Montgomery said when asked what he wants to see from that line. “I thought JD had his best game in a long time last game. I think Boqvist, his confidence just keeps rising. Now he’s up on the third line. And Freddy’s just gotta be a guy that's heavy, that owns pucks below the goal line, and plays with pace and emotion.”
Playoff goalie plan taking shape?
Montgomery gets asked about the possibility of rotating goalies in the playoffs seemingly every week now, and his answers get dissected and debated on these airwaves and elsewhere every time. That has certainly been the case the last couple days since Montgomery’s latest comments on Saturday.
“I think if we commit to a rotation, it's gonna be Game 1, Game 2, Game 3, Game 4, if that's what we end up deciding. And then we can go from there,” Montgomery said. “I mean, obviously performance and winning in the playoffs dictates a lot of decision-making, but this is what we're comfortable doing. It's what our goalies are used to preparing.
“So, we'll see what ends up happening. It's hard when you win Game 1, if you do win Game 1, to switch, but if you're committed to it and it's the way you think your goaltenders have had tremendous success the last two years, it doesn't make a lot of sense to switch. But as we all know, results really matter. They’re immediate in the playoffs.”
There are still plenty of ifs, ands or buts in that answer, and Montgomery is clearly not 100% committing to anything yet. Personally, however, I do think you’re going to see both Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman early in the first round, probably rotating the first few games in the way Montgomery outlined.
I keep coming back to something Montgomery said in Montreal last month. I asked him point blank if they could rotate all the way to the end of the regular season and then ride one guy in the playoffs, which is what they tried to do last year. His answer seemed to suggest that he now believes that was a mistake.
“We know if you go with a platoon the whole year, switching in and switching out, you can't expect one guy to ride the emotions of the playoffs by themselves,” he said.
At the time, Montgomery was entertaining the idea of riding one goalie for several games in a row in the regular season at some point. Well, that never happened. The rotation has stayed in place, and now there are just four games left.
If we take Montgomery at his word, that would mean they’re not going to suddenly try to ride one guy every game in the playoffs like they did last year.
Lightning looking likely
It’s certainly looking like the Bruins’ first-round opponent is going to be the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Lightning are six points behind the Maple Leafs for third in the Atlantic Division and nine points ahead of the gaggle of teams fighting for the second wild-card spot, so they seem pretty locked into the first wild-card spot at this point.
The Bruins, meanwhile, pushed their lead over the Panthers for first in the Atlantic to five points with Saturday’s win, with just four games to go. It seems unlikely Boston slides down to a two vs. three matchup with Toronto.
The only thing that could potentially still change here would be the Bruins catching and passing the Rangers for the No. 1 overall seed in the conference. They’re currently three points behind New York. Both teams have four games remaining, and the Rangers own the tiebreaker.
The Bruins finish up with games against the Hurricanes, Penguins, Capitals and Senators. The Rangers have the Islanders twice, Flyers and Senators. So, the schedule doesn’t really favor either – they both have three games left against teams with something to play for, plus Ottawa.
If the Bruins were to pass the Rangers, they would face whoever winds up being the second wild-card team, and New York would get Tampa Bay.