In stark contrast to the dominant performance given by Bruins penalty-killers in Round 1, Boston turned out its worst penalty-kill performance of the playoffs in the team’s 5-4, Game 5 loss against the Islanders Monday night -- and those struggles have come in large part due to missing some important defensive personnel.
“I thought five-on-five we were dominant, but the PK let us down,” Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said after the game.
As injuries on the Bruins’ defense linger, Boston’s penalty kill has declined.
When Kevan Miller went down in Game 4 of the Bruins’ first-round series against the Capitals, the Bruins lost an important piece of their penalty killing core.
The same thing can be said about the loss of Brandon Calro, who exited Game 3 of this series after taking a hard check into the boards from Islanders forward Cal Clutterbuck.
“Obviously [on] our PK, Carlo and Miller eat up a lot of those minutes. We miss them back there,” Cassidy said. “We had some breakdowns we need to correct, guys don’t have their abilities on it, but we've got to coach them up, make sure they're better.
“That’s what's in front of us that sticks out right now.”
In the first game with Carlo off the ice (Game 4), the Bruins allowed no power-play goals on two Islanders attempts, but in Game 5 on Monday the Islanders were able to take advantage of the Bruins’ patchwork penalty kill.
The Islanders scored on their first three power-play opportunities of the game, and went 3-for-4 in total on the man advantage. Those three power-play goals are a huge reason why the Islanders find themselves ahead in the series 3-2, with the Bruins now in a win-or-go-home situation for Game 6.
To get an idea why the Bruins miss Carlo so much when they’re shorthanded, just look at how effective he was in their Round 1 series against Washington.
In that series, Carlo had the second-most penalty-kill minutes (20:42), behind only Charlie McAvoy. And in those 20 minutes, the Bruins went 90% on the penalty kill.
Since his absence, the Bruins have successfully killed off only 50% (three of six) of their penalties.
Carlo and Miller are also two of the team’s best shot-blockers. Both blocked several key shots against Washington’s power play in Round 1, including stepping in front of a few Alex Ovechkin one-timers. In total, Carlo had 13 blocked shots in the Capitals series.
Despite missing 28 of the Bruins’ regular-season games this year, Miller had the fourth-most blocks on the team. Carlo, who missed 29 games, ranked sixth.
When asked how other Bruins blue-liners can make up for not having Carlo and Miller to help fight off penalties, McAvoy said the rest of the defensemen have to “just keep plugging away.”
“I think everyone’s stepping up and we’re trying to work together as a group to pick up for those guys,” he said. “You can't replace the guys that are out of the lineup so you’ve just got to do it by committee and that’s what we're trying to do. Everyone’s trying to pull on the rope and that's it, that's all you can do.”
McAvoy, who leads all Bruins in shorthanded time on ice this postseason, was on the ice for all three Islanders power-play goals Monday, once paired with Jeremy Lauzon, once paired with Connor Clifton, and once paired with Jarred Tinordi.
Clifton and Tinordi were the two players that drew into Boston’s lineup when Miller and Carlo went down, and they've been tasked with picking up some of the slack killing penalties.
On top of missing two top penalty-killers, two remaining top six Bruins defensemen -- Mike Reilly and Matt Grzelcyk -- rarely see time on ice when the team is shorthanded. Reilly has only played 18 seconds on the PK all series.
Some good news for Boston is that Brandon Carlo could be back in the series. He skated after Bruins’ morning skate on Monday morning and Cassidy said the team will make a decision on if he’s ready to return on Wednesday, ahead of Game 6.
Though Cassidy has repeatedly voiced his frustration that the penalty calls haven't been applied the same way to both teams in the series, the Bruins’ penalty kill will have to find a way to improve in Game 6 or Boston’s season could come to an end on Wednesday night.
“It’s do or die for us so we better be ready to play,” Cassidy said.
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