The Bruins need more secondary scoring. There are plenty of players who can do more in that respect, but one whose stat line really stands out is Nick Foligno.
Signed to a two-year, $7.6 million deal over the summer, the veteran forward has yet to score a goal as a Bruin. He has four assists and a team-worst minus-8 rating through 18 games. He did not register a single point in his final eight games before this holiday/COVID break.
Foligno missed eight games earlier this season with an upper-body injury. He has bounced all over the lineup and has not had steady linemates. Those are factors in his slow start, but they do not give him a free pass.
The 34-year-old has also brought some positives to the table despite not scoring. He has already established himself as one of the team's leaders, as evidenced by him getting an alternate captain's 'A' for a couple games. He has also brought some needed physicality, leading the team in hits.
But the Bruins didn't sign Foligno to just be a veteran presence who hits people. He's their sixth-highest-paid forward. The expectation was that he would help the Bruins' middle six score more than it did last year.
That hasn't happened. And while there is certainly some level of bad luck in scoring zero goals on 32 shots, Foligno hasn't exactly been getting a ton of great chances. Among 15 Bruins forwards who have played at least five games this season, Foligno ranks 10th in expected goals per 60 minutes, 13th in individual scoring chances per 60, and 13th in high-danger chances per 60 (all according to Natural Stat Trick).
For someone whose bread and butter during his prime was scoring and creating greasy goals, that's not good. Foligno has consistently come in above 6 scoring chances per 60 and 3 high-danger chances per 60 throughout his career, jumping above 7 and 4 during his very best years. This season those numbers are at 4.46 and 2.23.
The Bruins need Foligno to pick up the pace in terms of getting chances and scoring goals. According to his coach, Bruce Cassidy, one key to doing that will be picking up the pace of his skating and all-around game.
"I think the physical part of his game is there," Cassidy said when asked to assess Foligno's play on Tuesday. "He's one of our hit leaders every night, so he's finishing checks. He's going to the net. He's done a good job net-front power play in terms of retrieving pucks and creating some traffic there. For him, I think the pace of his game has to pick up.
"What I mean by that is, try to stay more in motion. He tends to post up on the wing a little bit more than we'd like in terms of, try to keep your feet moving so that when you do get the puck, you're in stride. It happens to everybody that gets a little older in this league. You have to find a way to keep up. He's no different in that regard. The league is continually getting faster. The style of play is faster. That's just an area that players have to adjust and change their game a little bit. So we've talked to him about that."
Cassidy also wants to see Foligno be more willing to shoot, a desire that applies to many other Bruins as well.
"I think he needs to, when he is in a position to shoot, think about shot more than making plays right now," Cassidy said. "Those greasy goals, we've all discussed it -- both him and Freddy [Trent Frederic], Jake [DeBrusk], Taylor [Hall], all those guys that haven't scored as much -- to make sure they don't turn down shooting opportunities."
Shooting more when the opportunity is there is a fixable problem. Whether Foligno playing too slowly at 34 years old is fixable remains to be seen. The Bruins certainly hope it is. Otherwise, signing Foligno for the money they did will continue to look like a miscalculation.
