BOSTON — The Bruins have been inconsistent on special teams this campaign, but the recent improvement from the power play and penalty killing units is an encouraging sign as the regular season winds down.
The Bruins entered Saturday’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers in a 1-for-14 slump on the power play. They scored twice with the man advantage against the Flyers and duplicated that same success in Sunday’s 5-3 win over the Detroit Red Wings. David Pastrnak and Loui Eriksson both scored power play goals to help Boston go 2-for-5 with 11 shots overall.
It’s the only time all season and first time since January 2011Â that Boston has scored two power-play goals in back-to-back games.
“Before (this weekend) we were getting so many looks and lots of chances,” Bruins defenseman Torey Krug said of his team’s power play. “The puck just wasn’t going in. At least we were getting momentum out of it. So the power play has become a positive thing for our team and when you’re getting more than one goal a game, it’s tough to lose hockey games when you score more than one power play goal.”
The Bruins had the NHL’s third-best power play last season, and even though a few members of last year’s team are gone, there’s too much offensive talent for the unit to struggle for much longer, especially when the confidence level is high.
“I think we have a couple (power play) groups put together right now that are moving the puck with confidence and not really second guessing themselves,” Krug said. “We’re zipping the puck around pretty good, so it’s a combination of those two things, so it’s nice to have that.”
The penalty kill, which has given up a goal in each of the last two games, still has shown improvement. Julien said before Sunday’s game that the penalty kill was “better” against the Flyers and he liked that the unit was “more aggressive versus passive there along the walls.”
Detroit had five power plays and averaged less than two shots on goal per opportunity Sunday afternoon. The Bruins did a nice job pressuring the points, winning 50-50 battles along the boards and clearing the zone.
The highlights of the penalty kill’s performance were two shorthanded goals. Brad Marchand and Daniel Paille both scored on shorthanded breakaways after each stole the puck from Red Wings center Stephen Weiss.
“Besides the shorthanded goals, we did a good job of taking away their opportunities on the power play,” Krug said. “You give that unit so many looks, they’re bound to score a goal no matter what you do. It was a good job today by our special teams and we need that moving forward.”
Special teams will play a key role in Boston’s success as the regular season winds down and, obviously, once the Stanley Cup playoffs begin. The Bruins rank 19th in 5-on-5 scoring (they were third in 2013-14), so it’s important that their 14th-ranked power play establishes more consistency. Conversely, the Bruins have more youth, weaker backup goaltending and less depth on the blue line than last season, which puts a greater importance on the penalty kill.
The best way for the Bruins to make a deep playoff run is to improve both of these units by the time Round 1 begins, and recent results suggest the B’s are capable of making this happen.
“Special teams can win a lot of games for you in this league and it can really be the difference on any single night,” Marchand said. “I think we really wanted to bear down and make sure that we again rose to that challenge, and the guys did a great job (Sunday).”
Thumbnail photo via Winslow Townson/USA TODAY Sports Images
