The Bruins made more history over the weekend, becoming the fastest team ever to 50 wins and the third-fastest ever to clinch a playoff spot with Saturday’s win over the Red Wings.
They have also hit a bit of a mini-skid, though, losing two of their last three games overall. They blew a 2-0 lead and lost to Edmonton on Thursday. Then Boston mounted its own comeback from a two-goal deficit to beat Detroit 3-2 on Saturday.
On Sunday, the Bruins dug themselves an even deeper hole, falling behind 4-0 in the second leg of their home-and-home with the Red Wings. They once again mounted a comeback, but couldn’t complete it this time, ultimately falling 5-3.
There is little reason to panic given that we’ve seen these Bruins pull out of a mini-skid before. When they lost four of five around the All-Star break, they responded with a 10-game winning streak. There are a few themes that have emerged, though. Here’s a look at seven of them:
1. Too many periods off
The Bruins started well on Thursday and were up 2-0 on the Oilers after one, but then they seemingly stopped playing and couldn’t turn it back on as Edmonton mounted its comeback over the final 30 minutes. On Saturday, they clawed their way back over the final two periods to beat Detroit, but that was only after falling behind 2-0 during an abysmal first period.
On Sunday, the Bruins’ poor start lasted even longer, with a lackluster first period giving way to a second that saw the Red Wings score three times to push their lead to 4-0. The B’s did finally turn it on late in the second period and into the third, but 25 or so good minutes isn’t going to be good enough, even against a team that was a seller at the trade deadline.
Perhaps more than anything else, this is what the Bruins are going to have to guard against the most over the next month. There are no must-wins given that they have an 11-point lead for the No. 1 seed and a ridiculous 17-point lead in the division. They also still have time to fix anything that slips, with 17 games remaining. But they don’t want to let too many bad habits creep in, and they don’t want to stray too far from what’s gotten them here. The quicker they can find some internal motivation and get back to 60-minute efforts, the better.
2. Power play continues to struggle
Woof. After Sunday’s 0-for-3 showing, the Bruins’ power play is now 6-for-58 (10.3%) over the last 18 games. Even worse, they gave up a shorthanded goal in both of this weekend’s games.
The common theme when the Bruins’ power play struggles like this is that it’s too slow and too stationary. They’re not entering the zone with speed, and there’s too much horizontal movement and not enough vertical. When they do get set up, there’s too much standing around and holding onto the puck, and not enough body and puck movement.
The first shorthanded goal they gave up on Saturday came on a David Krejci entry that was too slow, with a pass that was too soft and easily intercepted. The second on Sunday featured David Pastrnak standing still just inside the zone and getting his pocket picked.
The one positive -- a goal on Saturday -- came when Jake DeBrusk, usually the net-front guy, rotated out high, took a pass, and cut through the circle before dishing a pass to Patrice Bergeron right in front for a redirect goal. Note: Player movement, pace, attacking downhill, quick passing. The Bruins need more of that.
3. Penalty kill springs a few leaks
Usually the Bruins can at least break even in the special teams battle even when their power play is struggling, because their penalty kill has been so good this season. That didn’t happen this weekend, A) because of the two shorties, and B) because they allowed the Red Wings to go 3-for-5 on their power plays.
The common theme here was the Wings running their power play through Dylan Larkin in the bumper spot in the slot, and the Bruins for some reason not covering him. The first goal featured two passes into Larkin during the buildup, the second was a rebound off a Larkin shot, and the third was a goal from Larkin himself.
You could maybe write off Saturday as a game that had no Derek Forbort, who has been such an important part of the Bruins’ penalty kill. But Forbort was on the ice for both of Detroit’s power-play goals on Sunday, so it wasn’t that simple.
This seems like more of a structural, X’s-and-O’s fix than anything. Lots of teams feature talented players in the bumper spot on their power plays, and it hasn’t been an ongoing issue for the Bruins. Their PK faces it plenty in practice with Bergeron there. For whatever reason, they really struggled with Larkin this weekend, though.
4. Fourth line hits it stride
This weekend wasn’t all negatives. One of the biggest positives was the fourth line of A.J. Greer, Tomas Nosek and Garnet Hathaway, which scored the winning goal on Saturday, generated offensive-zone time and scoring chances throughout the two-game set, and consistently brought tone-setting energy and physicality.
Over the last three games, those three have played 21:19 together at 5-on-5. During that time, the Bruins hold advantages of 26-14 in shot attempts, 16-10 in shots on goal, 17-7 in scoring chances, 7-2 in high-danger chances, and 1-0 in goals. They have an expected goals share of 69.4%, and Hathaway and Greer are tied for fourth on the team in 5-on-5 shot attempts with 10 apiece.
With ESPN’s Emily Kaplan reporting over the weekend that Taylor Hall and Nick Foligno could both be back by the start of the playoffs, one or two members of this current fourth line could be in danger of sitting if and when everyone’s healthy. That’s a future discussion, though. In the present, Greer, Nosek and Hathaway are all making good cases for themselves, and for this line as a whole.
5. Charlie McAvoy goes beast mode
Another positive: McAvoy was an absolute monster this weekend, despite not scoring a point. He was all over the place at both ends of the ice, especially in the offensive zone, where he consistently helped create scoring chances.
On Sunday, McAvoy had 14 shot attempts, in a game in which no other player had more than seven. He had 10 the day before. During McAvoy’s 34:24 at 5-on-5 over the last two games, the Bruins had advantages of 59-18 in shot attempts, 28-10 in shots on goal, 35-10 in scoring chances, 14-4 in high-danger chances, and 3-0 in goals.
McAvoy, who missed the start of the season following offseason shoulder surgery, has been looking more and more like himself for a while now. That’s great news for the Bruins with the playoffs approaching.
6. Matt Grzelcyk’s predicament
A lot of those dominant McAvoy shifts came while he was paired with Grzelcyk. It’s been obvious for a long time how well those two play off each other. Grzelcyk is talented enough to join McAvoy in a fluid, five-man offensive-zone attack, but McAvoy also trusts Grzelcyk to provide cover for him when he takes chances jumping up.
The problem for Grzelcyk is that the Bruins traded for Dmitry Orlov, and Orlov’s best fit might also be next to McAvoy. Orlov can do a lot of the same things Grzelcyk does at 5-on-5, Orlov plays on the power play and penalty kill unlike Grzelcyk, and Orlov is more physical.
Moving Grzelcyk to the third pairing is an option, but one Jim Montgomery hasn’t given much time yet. Grzelcyk played his off side next to Derek Forbort on Thursday; they were fine, but it was hard to shake the idea that Connor Clifton is a more natural fit in that spot given how Montgomery uses his third pair, and that Forbort and Clifton have spent a lot more time together.
On Saturday, Grzelcyk started the game with Clifton, with Forbort sitting. That lasted just half a period before Montgomery resorted to the comfort of having Grzelcyk next to McAvoy and dropped Orlov to the third pair. The third pairing would not seem to be any sort of long-term home for Orlov, whose all-around skillset warrants a top-four role.
Grzelcyk is a much better player than his critics give him credit for, and the dominance of the Grzelcyk-McAvoy pairing this weekend was a reminder of that. Yet, he still may find himself shuffled out of the lineup if everyone is healthy when the playoffs start.
7. Tyler Bertuzzi moves all around
Bertuzzi started his Bruins tenure on the third line with Charlie Coyle and Trent Frederic. He set up a goal in his first period with them, and the three showed some promise together.
Since then, Bertuzzi has moved all over the lineup, and that is still his only point in four games with Boston. He spent Saturday on the second line with David Krejci and David Pastrnak. Bertuzzi helped create a couple chances with them, including a nice pass to set up a Pastrnak one-timer that was turned aside.
He started Sunday’s game on that line again, but as the Bruins fell further behind, Montgomery shuffled things up and moved Bertuzzi up to the top line and over to right wing to play with Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand, dropping Jake DeBrusk to the third line and reuniting the Czech line in the process.
That did actually seem to spark something, with Bertuzzi playing well there, DeBrusk giving the third line a needed shot in the arm, and the Czech line scoring twice. The Marchand-Bergeron-Bertuzzi line didn’t score, but the Bruins did out-attempt the Wings 11-3 and out-chance them 7-2 when those three were on the ice.
Bertuzzi’s vision and passing has definitely stood out as a positive so far, but at times he’s been a little too deferential to his new teammates. Bertuzzi has just five shots on goal through four games with the B’s. Given that he scored 30 goals last season and has a career shooting percentage of 14.4%, you’d like to see Bertuzzi start using his shot more. Perhaps that will happen if and when he gets enough time on one line to actually get comfortable.