The Boston Bruins have been a difficult team to figure out this season because of inconsistency in several aspects of their game and lots of injuries.
The B’s returned home Sunday after a tough West coast road trip in which they lost to all three California teams before earning a much-needed win over the Arizona Coyotes on Saturday night.
It was an interesting road trip, to say the least. The Bruins couldn’t score much to begin the trip, with two goals in the first two games, before they tallied nine goals in the final two contests. The penalty kill was fantastic, with seven straight successful attempts at the start of the trip, but the unit worsened over the last two matchups with three goals against. The power play was really bad at times during the first three games before generating nine shots and its first goal in eight games against the Coyotes.
Where do the Bruins stand after this road trip with an upcoming showdown against the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday? Let’s take a look.
Standings: 15-12-1 (5th in Atlantic Division, 2nd Wild Card playoff spot)
Offense
Top Scorer: Patrice Bergeron, 19 points
Top Goal Scorer: Brad Marchand, 8
Team Goals Scored: 2.50/Game, 21st
Power Play: 12-for-66 (18.2 percent), 18th
The Bruins’ offense has taken a step back with 0.65 goals per game fewer than last season. First-line center David Krejci’s 17-game absence from the lineup has largely contributed to this lack of scoring. Zdeno Chara’s 19 games missed also has hurt the offense, specifically the power play, where he scored a team-high 10 goals in 2013-14.
The west coast road trip showed us that the Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and Reilly Smith trio is the only reliable scoring line. These players combined for 12 points (five goals, seven assists) on the four-game trip, and each of them rank in the top six on the team in scoring. Marchand (8), Smith (6) and Bergeron (5) also are the B’s top three goals scorers.
Boston needs more consistent scoring production from its other lines to win games whenever the Bergeron trio and/or the goaltending struggles. Carl Soderberg and Loui Eriksson have combined for one goal (Eriksson power-play tally Saturday) over the last 12 games. Chris Kelly hasn’t scored since Oct. 23 (17 games).
One encouraging result from the road trip was the fourth line’s scoring. Gregory Campbell scored a goal, Simon Gagne netted two and Daniel Paille tallied two assists.
The power play has been among Boston’s main weaknesses. It’s converting at 18.2 percent, down from 21.7 a season ago, which was the third-best mark in the league. One issue for the Bruins is the number of power-play opportunities they are receiving: a league-low 66.
The Bruins still are among the best puck possession teams with a 5-on-5 Corsi-for percentage of 52.41, sixth-best in the league. This means Boston is accounting for more than 52 percent of the shot attempts at 5-on-5. Their 5-on-5 PDO (save percentage plus shooting percentage) is 100.59, 12th-highest in the league. A PDO above 100 (Nashville leads all teams at 102.58) means a team is having good luck, while a team well below 100 is unlucky (Edmonton is 30th at 96.84).
Bergeron has been a bit unlucky this season with a 6.4 shooting percentage. He’s been at 9.8 percent or higher in eight of his 10 previous NHL seasons.
Finding a first-line right wing still must happen for Boston’s offense to approach 2013-14 levels again, but it’s too early to judge the unit as a whole until Krejci and Chara return full-time.
Defense/Goaltending
If you take away the seven goals given up Thursday to the San Jose Sharks (it’s an outlier; the Bruins hadn’t allowed seven goals against since January 2013), Boston has a 1.88 goals against average since Nov. 14. The Bruins also give up 29.4 shots per game, 14th-fewest in the league.
Penalty killing has been a strength of the Bruins throughout most of the Claude Julien era, but this unit ranks 22nd with a 78.4 percent success rate in 2014-15. Chara is one of the league’s best penalty killers, so this unit should show improvement once he returns.
Reigning Vezina Trophy winner Tuukka Rask started the season slow, but he’s 8-4-1 with a .920 save percentage since the start of November. His even-strength save percentage of .926 is impressive considering all the injuries to Bruins defensemen and the increase in breakdowns in front of the net. Niklas Svedberg has played well in the backup role with a .922 save percentage.
Here’s Rask’s save percentage chart from his 21 games played.
Injuries
Here’s an updated look at Boston’s injuries this season.
| Player | Position | Injury | Games Missed |
| David Krejci | Center | Undisclosed | 17 |
| Gregory Campbell | Center | Core | 5 |
| Chris Kelly | Center | Upper body | 2 |
| Brad Marchand | Left Wing | Undisclosed | 3 |
| Zdeno Chara | Defenseman | PCL tear in left knee | 19 |
| Kevan Miller | Defenseman | Dislocated right shoulder | 14 |
| Torey Krug | Defenseman | Broken finger | 4 |
| David Warsofsky | Defenseman | Groin | 13 |
| Adam McQuaid | Defenseman | Broken Thumb | 8 |
Thumbnail photo via Winslow Townson/USA TODAY Sports Images
