BOSTON — The Bruins fixed most of the issues that had cropped into their game early in their opening round series when they put together back-to-back wins in Montreal to pull even with the Canadiens.
After managing just one goal in the first two games, the Bruins' offense delivered nine in Games 3 and 4. After being unable to overcome early deficits in those opening games in Boston, the Bruins dug out of three separate holes on Thursday before pulling out a 5-4 win in overtime. And after taking 12 minor penalties in the first three games, the Bruins finally did a better job of staying out of the box with just two penalties in Game 4.
But one area remains a source of concern even after two straight wins. The Bruins' power play is still completely powerless.
After finishing just 20th in the league in the regular season with a 16.2-percent success rate, the Bruins are now 0-for-12 in the series with the man-advantage, and managed to earn just one power play opportunity on Thursday.
"Well obviously we have to score on our power play at some point, and we realize that," Bruins coach Claude Julien said after the morning skate in preparation for Saturday's Game 5 at the Garden. "And again last game we had one power play. It's pretty hard to get your power play going when you've only got the one, but hopefully that is going to improve and hopefully that is going to give us some results. And we know that as you move on in the series, those things become pretty important. And we're a team that understands that, and we hopefully will get those results."
Julien did tweak his power play units during the club's workouts in Lake Placid between Games 3 and 4. Patrice Bergeron moved back up front from the point, replacing Nathan Horton on the top unit alongside David Krejci and Milan Lucic, with Zdeno Chara and Tomas Kaberle at the points. Rich Peverley, Mark Recchi and Michael Ryder were up front on the second unit, with Andrew Ference and Dennis Seidenberg at the points.
They didn't get much of a chance to test those changes in Game 4 with just one power play opportunity, but the Bruins know they need to get some production out of their special teams soon.
"It's the same old thing, we've just got to get ugly," Recchi said in Lake Placid. "We see the video. We see what they're doing. Now we just have to go execute it. We've got to do the right things. We've got to shoot at the right time and we've got to pass at the right time. You have to have support all over the ice. It just takes an ugly goal to get things going. If we can find that, then hopefully things can turn for us. We know what we have to do, now it's just a matter of executing it."
The Bruins got those kinds of goals at even strength in Game 4, driving the net and creating traffic in front and scoring on screens and rebounds. It's time for them to take that same approach on the man-advantage, and use that extra skater to be effective.
Kaberle was acquired at a hefty price ahead of the trade deadline in February with the goal of bolstering the power play with a legitimate quarterback at the point. Instead, the Bruins have regressed, going a woeful 7-for-78 (8.97 percent) on the power play in 28 games with Kaberle in the lineup.
Kaberle's hesitancy to shoot while looking for the perfect pass has been a part of the problem, and a return to a more basic approach of crashing the net and banging in a few "ugly" goals would look awfully pretty to the Bruins as they seek their first series lead on Saturday.
