The first half of the season hasn't gone exactly as planned with a number of players slumping of late and a potentially demoralizing loss in Montreal on Saturday, but the Bruins can't complain too much as they engineered their own amazing comeback two days later against the Penguins and can still lay claim to the Northeast Division lead and third place in the East at the season's halfway marker.
Still, there are some areas of concern to go along with some promising trends, a half-dozen of which are covered in the latest installment of Bruins Shootout.
1. Milan Lucic still leads the Bruins with 16 goals and 28 points, but it's been a while since he added to those totals. He had no goals and just one assist over his last 10 games going into Monday's clash with the Penguins, and is a minus-3 in that span.
"His game has slipped a little bit," coach Claude Julien said on Monday. "He knows that. We know that. We've talked about it and we're working on getting him to find his game the way he had it."
Lucic had no points again on Monday, as he had just 12:34 of ice time — his lowest of the season.
2. It's not just the scoring that has been absent from Lucic's game. He also hasn't been the physical force Bruins fans have become accustomed to seeing. He seemed to awaken after the late-game brawl with Atlanta earned him a match penalty on Dec. 23, following that up with a nine-hit effort against Florida. But he managed just 15 total hits in six games since and hasn't picked up a fighting major in 34 games, the longest drought of his pro career.
The lack of scoring and the dearth of physical play aren't coincidental, as the latter usually leads to chances for the former.
"I think the physicality comes when he's skating," Julien said. "Right now, he's not getting there on time. … When he's skating, the rest of his game follows. He doesn't have to overthink his game. He just has to have his legs going and the rest just happens to follow."
The Bruins need Lucic skating, so that he can again start hitting and scoring like he's capable.
3. Lucic isn't alone in the lack of physical play of late. In the final three games of their recent five-game road trip, Boston was outhit 21-15 by Atlanta in the "revenge" game with the Thrashers, 24-7 by Toronto and 21-8 by Buffalo. The hit stat isn't always a perfect barometer for physical play, but single-digit hits in back-to-back games against division rivals are a troubling sign by any measure.
The Bruins have also had just two fighting majors in eight games since that fight-filled affair with the Thrashers back on Dec. 23. Both of those fights featured Adam McQuaid, who is now sidelined with an undisclosed injury. The Bruins don't need to be dropping the gloves all the time, but they've proven repeatedly in recent years that they are a far more effective club when they are emotionally engaged and playing with more of an edge. They need to ramp up the physical play in all aspects of their game to get the most out of their talent.
4. There are some good trends of late, too, most notably Patrice Bergeron's reemergence as an offensive force. After managing just two points in 11 games in a slump that carried into mid-December, Bergeron has 5-7-12 totals in his last 11 games. Saturday's two-goal performance in Montreal was overshadowed by the club's late collapse, but it was one of Bergeron's best all-around performances of the season. Bergeron has played with a number of different linemates of late as injuries and ineffectiveness have forced Julien into frequent shuffles, but the latest combination of Bergeron between Mark Recchi and Brad Marchand shows promise. It's hard to break up the highly effective "energy" line of Marchand, Greg Campbell and Shawn Thornton, but Marchand has earned a shot at a bigger role and adds some spunk to the line with his speed and agitating style.
5. The latest line shifts also move Tyler Seguin back to wing alongside David Krejci and Blake Wheeler. While Seguin may feel more comfortable at his natural position of center, for now he's best suited for the wing. Seguin got his chance in the middle between Bergeron and Recchi in recent games, but he struggled on key draws and is still learning the defensive responsibilities of the position. The move also deprived the Bruins of their best faceoff man in Bergeron and limited the impact Bergeron could have defensively. Now back on the wing, Seguin adds speed and finishing ability to Krejci's line and should be in a better position to succeed, as Krejci has a knack for bringing the best out of his linemates.
6. Peter Chiarelli openly admitted that he got "nothing" in return for trading Marco Sturm to Los Angeles last month, but Kings coach Terry Murray sounded like the Bruins got the better of the deal — and not just because of the cap space Boston gained. Murray ripped Sturm's work ethic last week, telling the Los Angeles Times that while he understood what Sturm was going through coming off a serious knee injury and adjusting to a new team, he expects more out of Sturm.
"You still have to come and be intense and work hard and really compete," Murray said. "I don't care where you are, what the situation is you're going through, and that's what the demand was from me to him."
Sturm, whose hard work was never questioned in Boston, responded with three assists in two games since being publicly called out and now has 2-4-6 totals in 10 games. So maybe the Kings will end up getting something valuable for nothing after all.
