The Bruins have very few real problems they have to fix in their final eight regular-season games before the playoffs begin. There is one that is becoming increasingly impossible to ignore, though: The power play.
Bruins' power play struggles continue in loss to Predators
After Tuesday’s 0-for-5 performance on the man advantage, the Bruins are now just 11-for-93 (11.8%) on the man advantage over their last 27 games, dating back to Jan. 26. That ranks 31st in the NHL during that time. The only team worse is the Chicago Blackhawks, who have the second-worst record in the NHL and who traded away their best power-play weapon (Patrick Kane) last month.
This isn’t just a few bad games or even a few bad weeks. We’re talking about a full one-third of the regular season, a sample size of more than two months.
For much of that time, the feeling among fans, media and even the Bruins themselves was that at some point, the power play would get back on track. “They’re too talented not to” was a common refrain. It was easy to point to their first-half success, when the Bruins’ power play ranked second in the league through the first 47 games of the season, as evidence that they were capable of being so much better.
They still are capable of that. A team that has the likes of David Pastrnak, Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron, Jake DeBrusk, David Krejci, Pavel Zacha, Charlie McAvoy, Hampus Lindholm and Dmitry Orlov should be able to ice not just one, but two good power-play units.
Yet, the struggles continue, and there are now just eight games left in the regular season. The Bruins are running out of time to fix this before Game 1 of the playoffs.
They know what the problems are. They know what they’re supposed to be doing to fix them. Bergeron laid it out pretty succinctly Tuesday night.
“I think we’re forcing plays. I think we’re disjointed and disconnected,” Bergeron said. “I think we have to go back to hard and simple. Same thing five-on-five. I think on the power play, it’s no different. You have to work for loose pucks and retrieve pucks. When you’re one-and-done, it’s hard to really capitalize on your chances.”
The problem is that we’ve been hearing comments like that from everyone involved -- Bergeron, Marchand, Pastrnak, Montgomery, etc. -- for a while now. For whatever reason, they just cannot seem to translate it from talk to action on any sort of consistent basis. They continue to bunch up and turn pucks over on entries. They continue to be too stationary once they get set up in the zone. They continue to get beat to those loose pucks and rebounds.
Montgomery believes there is now a mental component to the struggles, with players possibly overthinking things and playing too tight.
“I think it is in guys’ heads,” he said. “People are trying to be perfect. We don’t get success right away, we’re not recovering pucks. That’s when you know you’re not playing fast on the power play. We take a shot and we’re not on the rebound, or wherever it goes. They cleared a lot of pucks after we took shots to the net. When you’re on top of your power play, you’re converging at the net and you’re coming up with those pucks.”
The question, of course, is: What now? Throughout these two months, Montgomery has at times alternated between patience and tinkering. There have been stretches where he has rolled out the same five-man units pretty consistently and given his talented players an opportunity to play through it.
There have also been times he’s tried some personnel changes. He moved McAvoy off the top unit to give Orlov a shot there. Then he replaced Orlov with Lindholm. He has taken a look at both Orlov and McAvoy in more of a right elbow spot on the second unit instead of a traditional point spot. He has given Pastrnak some additional shifts with the second unit. Pastrnak and Marchand have occasionally flipped wings on the top unit. Some of it has occasionally looked encouraging, but none of it has led to long-term, sustained success.
Now it feels like Montgomery and John Gruden, the two coaches in charge of the power play, are at an inflection point. They can stop tinkering and trust their star players to figure it out now that it’s crunch time, reinforcing what they should be doing in practice and video sessions and hoping it finally clicks. Or they can try a more drastic personnel change -- like something involving Pastrnak, Bergeron or Marchand being moved -- while there are still regular-season games to play with.
On Tuesday, Montgomery didn’t seem too inclined to try the nuclear option.
“I don’t know, we’ve changed it up quite a bit here in the last month. Change isn’t always the answer although it seems like the easiest answer,” Montgomery said. “It’s players committing to doing the right thing.”
Whether it’s personnel changes or internal improvement from the players already there, something has to give. Yes, it’s possible to win the Stanley Cup without a good power play. The Bruins themselves proved that in 2010-11.
But it’s obviously easier to win with one that can do some damage. A well-timed power-play goal can be the difference in a game. A dangerous power play can put this already great Bruins team over the top. A poor power play leaves them less margin for error and kills their momentum during games. It forces them to be near perfect in other aspects of the game, and it allows opponents to be less afraid to play physical against them and take penalties.
Their penalty kill can’t falter, or they risk decisively losing the special teams battle. Even with the Bruins’ penalty kill remaining very good during this 27-game stretch (third in the NHL at 85.1%), they’re a minus-3 net on special teams, with five shorthanded goals allowed not helping matters.
If you’re not winning on special teams, obviously you have to win at 5-on-5. Fortunately for the Bruins, they’re the best 5-on-5 team in the NHL with a plus-81 goal differential. No one else is better than plus-40. That affords them more wiggle room than most when it comes to special teams struggles.
But it’s not an infinite amount of wiggle room. You run into a hot goalie, or the Bruins’ excellent goaltending suddenly slips a little, and that 5-on-5 gap can close quickly. After the second-place Kraken, the next six teams in 5-on-5 goal differential are all potential Eastern Conference playoff opponents -- in order, the Maple Leafs, Devils, Hurricanes, Islanders, Rangers and Panthers.
The Bruins could still beat any and all of them even without an improved power play. But man, their postseason life could sure be made a heck of a lot easier if they get the man advantage figured out.
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