With 11:40 left in regulation Thursday night, Bruins coach Marco Sturm blew up his lines and put youngsters Fraser Minten and Marat Khusnutdinov with David Pastrnak. They scored 10 seconds later, with the goal reading Minten from Pastrnak and Khusnutdinov.
Unfortunately for Boston, the San Jose Sharks already led 4-0 at the time, and were well on their way to a 4-2 victory that snapped the Bruins' 13-game home winning streak. It was too little, too late.
But, it was a necessary change for Sturm, and one that arguably should have happened several games ago. Because the fact is that outside of the second line of Pavel Zacha, Viktor Arvidsson and Casey Mittelstadt, the Bruins just have not been getting enough from their top forwards since the Olympic break – at 5-on-5 or on the power play.
"I was just trying to get something going," Sturm said of his lineup shuffling. "I feel like all the lines a little bit got stuck. I needed a little bit of a push. I thought David had a little something, just didn't get enough help. And that's why I put Mints there and Khus a little bit, just to try to generate something. It was too flat for me today. Guys tried, but it was just not good enough. Top guys need to be your top guys, and in those kind of moments, you need them even more. And we just, unfortunately, just didn't really have it today."
If this was a one-off, it wouldn't be much cause for concern. But it's not. This has now been a pretty consistent theme across eight games since the Olympics.
The numbers are stark. When the Mittelstadt-Zacha-Arvidsson line has been on the ice at 5-on-5, the Bruins have outscored opponents 9-2 since the break. When any other line has been on the ice, the Bruins have gotten outscored 13-4.
Pastrnak has two 5-on-5 points in these eight games – one prior to that garbage time assist on Minten's goal Thursday night. Pastrnak and his wife, Rebecca, welcomed their second daughter earlier this week, so the human side of all this has to allow for the possibility that Pastrnak has perhaps, understandably, been a bit distracted recently.
That doesn't excuse the rest of the offense, though. Elias Lindholm and Morgan Geekie, two of the team's four highest-paid forwards, have combined for a grand total of zero 5-on-5 points since the break. That's not a typo. Zero. In eight games.
The power play, driven to success by those same big names pretty much all season, has gone quiet as well. After an 0-for-2 showing Thursday, they're now 4-for-28 (14.3%) since the break. Worse yet, they gave up a backbreaking shorthanded goal Thursday night that made it 3-0.
"More on the outside than inside," Sturm said of his power play. "We wanted to be more inside today. We did it once or twice, and that's about it. So again, that's something we have to be better at, because that's a big part of our game, our power play. We need them big time. Going back to our best players, right? Those guys just have to get it done."
Sturm had been rotating Geekie and Khusnutdinov between the first and third lines, but Geekie hasn't found traction in either spot. Lindholm, meanwhile, had been stapled to Pastrnak's side until the third period Thursday. The combination simply hasn't been clicking, something Lindholm himself acknowledged earlier this week.
"I think we've been too much up and down," he told WEEI.com. "I think we gotta find the consistency and help this team. It's the time of the year we need to step up and obviously be better. So, obviously we want to be better, and we have to start getting better right now.
"I think we're a little disconnected," he added. "I think we do too much hoping someone would make that play instead of, like, being closer to each other and support each other better."
Asked about the Lindholm-Pastrnak connection on Tuesday, Sturm expressed patience.
"We can be better, yes, but there's no panic in here," he said then. "I trust my guys. And Elias has been pretty good, pretty consistent with David all year long, and that's why I pretty much kept them together. And if I feel like during the game, I can switch, I will. But so far, it's not necessary."
Apparently, it became necessary Thursday night. The question now is, will it be necessary to keep these changes going forward? Or does Sturm still trust Lindholm enough to figure things out with Pastrnak?
The Bruins have little margin for error as they head out on a three-game road trip to Washington, New Jersey and Montreal, looking to snap their seven-game road losing streak. After Thursday's loss, they're now just one point ahead of Columbus for the final playoff spot in the East.
There could be some help on the way in the form of James Hagens, the Bruins' seventh overall pick last June. Hagens' sophomore season at Boston College could end as early as Friday night if the Eagles lose to Maine in the Hockey East quarterfinals, or it could continue until at least next weekend with a win. While neither Hagens nor the Bruins have tipped their hands, the expectation is that Hagens will sign with Boston once BC's season ends and make his NHL debut soon after.
But let's be very clear: Expecting the 19-year-old Hagens to be some kind of savior that fixes all that is currently ailing the Bruins' offense would be incredibly unfair to the kid. The reality is that the guys who have been with Boston all season are the ones that need to step up if this team is going to make the playoffs. If they don't, this could be a very disappointing final month of the season.