By the time the Bruins reached the third period of Game 4 of the Eastern Conference second round protecting a 2-1 lead, it seemed like their best strategy, if they drew a penalty from Columbus, would be to decline the power play.
As it turned out, they extended the lead to 3-1 on an even-strength goal from Sean Kuraly, and then went up 4-1 when Pierre-Luc Dubois was whistled for holding and Patrice Bergeron scored Boston's second power-play goal of the game.
Bergeron's goal was as important to the Bruins in their 4-1 victory as their limiting of the Blue Jackets to just one Cam Atkinson shorthanded shot on net during the penalty. Because throughout the night the Bruins power play was as dangerous to themselves as it was to Columbus.
The Blue Jackets finished with six 4-on-5 shots on net, mostly Grade-A chances (including Boone Jenner's penalty shot) that would've shifted the momentum of the game and the series had Tuukka Rask not stood tall in Boston's net.
So while the Bruins were feeling pretty satisfied on their day off Friday with the best-of-7 series tied, there clearly were some things for Boston to clean up before hosting Game 5 at TD Garden on Saturday.
The stakes are too high for the Bruins, who tied with Pittsburgh for most shorthanded goals allowed in the regular season (15), to not tighten up their power-play puck management. Their top power-play unit with David Pastrnak, Torey Krug, Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and Jake DeBrusk was a driving force in helping Boston finish third in power-play success (25.9 percent) in the regular season, but might need some tweaking to keep the aggressive Blue Jackets at bay.
For now it appears the only change Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy is planning is a possible switch of David Krejci for Pastrnak, a switch Cassidy already made in the second period of Game 4.
"The Krech move was to calm Pasta down a little bit," Cassidy said Friday. "And I think one thing Krech does as well as anybody in the National Hockey League, he's got great composure with the puck. So when it goes over to his side, pretty good chance he's going to make a good decision with it. We'd like to see him shoot a little more at times, but at the end of the day he's going to settle it down, that was the thinking behind that."
By the time Boston had its 3-1 lead and went on the power play, Cassidy started his second unit, which features two defensemen: Charlie McAvoy and Matt Grzelcyk. When Bergeron scored, Grzelcyk and Krug were on the ice.
Cassidy said more personnel decisions based on time and score could be made going forward. That's really the only answer at this point, because the Blue Jackets aren't going to relent with their pressuring penalty kill. With 5-on-5 play so even in this series, the special teams have determined every game and figure to do the same during the upcoming best-of-3 portion of the series.
Keeping Krejci in Pastrnak's spot is a reasonable start , but Cassidy can't hesitate to replace Krejci with McAvoy is there's even the slightest sign of puck-management trouble from the power play in Game 5.
Sure McAvoy's not as dangerous from the perimeter as Pastrnak or Krejci, but McAvoy can distribute the puck and let the likes of Marchand and Krug be creative. More importantly, McAvoy can perform offensively while remaining defensively responsible to make sure the Blue Jackets' penalty kill and the Bruins power play don't even each other out on the score sheet– which is what almost happened in Game 4.
In the past the Bruins have tried to limit McAvoy's playing time by keeping him on the second power-play unit, which typically gets less time. And he's not 100 percent reliable with the puck sometimes along the perimeter. But it's May and it's time for the Bruins to ride the multi-talented 21-year-old for all he's worth, and it's time for him to bear down. Plus he can lean on Krug to lead the way.
Krejci didn't want to get into specifics about tactics Friday when asked about reducing the number of Columbus shorthanded chances. But that's he's obviously determined to be part of the solution.
"Yeah, that shouldn't happen. That just shouldn't happen, obviously. We'll look at some video and then correct those mistakes, but that shouldn't happen," he said.
The Bruins have to turn their words to actions in order to make sure it doesn't happen, and that could mean Cassidy altering his power-play units as swiftly as he often switches up his even-strength forward lines.
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