BOSTON — One area that benefited from Zdeno Chara’s return to the Bruins’ lineup was the penalty kill.
The unit enjoyed inconsistent results with a 78.2 percent success rate in the 19 games that Chara missed because of a torn PCL suffered on Oct. 23. The Bruins dropped to 22nd in the NHL in penalty killing as a result.
The Bruins made a few defensive mistakes that cost them Thursday night in a 3-2 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks, but all of those goals against were scored at even strength. Boston’s penalty kill was a perfect 4 for 4, which included two separate 5-on-3 situations for more than 40 seconds each.
“I thought we did a good job of staying tight and not doing too much on the 5-on-4, the 5-on-3 was I thought we did the same thing,” said Bruins center Patrice Bergeron, who played 3:09 of shorthanded ice time, most among Boston forwards. “We’ve talked about the looks that they like and we’ve tried to take that away and not get running around, and (Tuukka Rask) made some good saves, also.”
The Bruins did a nice job of clogging the slot and getting into the shooting lanes, which forced the Blackhawks to pass the puck a lot more than they would have liked with the man advantage.
This structured defense was critical to Boston surviving the nearly two minutes of the 5-on-3 power play time Chicago had in the second period. The B’s gave up only one shot on goal when shorthanded 5-on-4, and one shot against when the Blackhawks had a 5-on-3 advantage.
The Bruins’ offense has been inconsistent over the last 10 games and has scored two goals or fewer in seven of those matchups. The pressure on the goaltenders and penalty kill units to play at an elite level has increased as a result, and both of these areas have been good for Boston over the majority of that span. The Bruins’ .938 on-ice save percentage is sixth-best in the league since Nov. 18.
The penalty kill has been a strength of the Bruins for most of Claude Julien’s tenure as head coach. Now that the blue line has more depth with eight healthy players, including the return of Chara, the team’s best penalty-killing defenseman, the penalty kill should be able to find more consistency.
Thumbnail photo via Greg M. Cooper/USA TODAY Sports Images
