The Boston Bruins didn’t live up to expectations in October.
They finished with a 6-6-0 record and failed to consistently play the structured defensive game we’re accustomed to seeing from Claude Julien’s teams throughout his tenure as head coach.
Luckily for the B’s, seven of their 12 games in November are against teams that didn’t make the 2014 Stanley Cup playoffs. Nine of those games are on home ice, so Boston has a good chance to improve their play in all three zones and pick up valuable points in the playoff race.
Let’s look at three positives and negatives from the first month of the season.
Positives
Dougie Hamilton Is Progressing
Hamilton has seen his role increase with Zdeno Chara out of the lineup and he’s answered the challenge. He’s tied for the team-lead in scoring among defensemen with six points (two goals, four assists). Four of those points have been scored in Chara’s absence. He’s playing a larger role on special teams (2:22 of power play and 1:41 of short-handed ice time per game), too.
Hamilton also is excelling defensively alongside Dennis Seidenberg on the top pairing — his on-ice save percentage is 92.93, the second-best among B’s D-men with at least seven games played. The 21-year-old’s puck possession numbers (54.44 Corsi-for percentage at 5-on-5 despite starting just 41 percent of those shifts in the attacking zone) are excellent, too.
Hamilton is thriving in a top-pairing role with less than 150 games of NHL experience. That’s quite impressive.
David Krejci and Carl Soderberg
The Bruins have received quality scoring production from their first- and third-line centers David Krejci and Carl Soderberg, respectively. Krejci leads the team with nine points (three goals, six assists) despite missing the first three of the team’s 12 games. He’s also won 54 percent of his faceoffs, which is 3 percent higher than last season. Krejci’s seven-game point streak ended in Thursday’s win over the Buffalo Sabres.
Soderberg has eight points, which is tied with Milan Lucic for second on the team. Soderberg also has been aggressive on the forecheck and is playing a responsible defensive game.
Faceoffs
The Bruins rank third in the league in faceoff percentage, winning 54 percent of their draws. Patrice Bergeron (63.5 percent), Krejci (54.2 percent) and Gregory Campbell (53.3 percent) are the three centers who’ve taken more than 100 draws. Bergeron and Krejci have each won 75 percent of their power-play faceoffs. Boston has five players with faceoff percentages above 50 percent at home, and four players with 50 percent or higher on the road.
Winning faceoffs has helped the Bruins become the fourth-best puck possession team with a 54.81 Corsi-for percentage during 5-on-5 play.
Negatives
Injuries
This clearly is the No. 1 issue. Any time you lose a player of Zdeno Chara’s caliber, the team is going to be worse at both ends of the ice. Chara is an exceptional defensive player, a 40-50 point scorer and a tremendous leader as captain. He’s going to miss the next four to five weeks with a PCL tear in his knee. Torey Krug will be out two to three weeks with a broken finger and Kevan Miller remains sidelined with a shoulder injury.
At forward, Gregory Campbell and David Krejci both missed the start of the regular season with injuries. Krejci missed the first three games, and the B’s averaged one goal per game in that span. They are averaging more than three goals per game since his return.
These five players have combined for 15 games lost due to injuries.
Defensive Breakdowns
The Bruins have given up many goals as a result of defensive breakdowns. Bad pinches, poor defensive coverage, turning the puck over in vulnerable areas, not protecting the slot and losing puck battles along the boards and in front of the net are among the examples of mistakes that both B’s defensemen and forwards are making. Boston ranks 14th in goals against per game (2.50) and 17th in penalty killing percentage (80.0). The Bruins normally rank in the top 10 of both categories.
Inability to Establish Consistency As a Team or Individually
The Bruins are 1-4-0 after a win, and it’s difficult to build momentum and build a lead in the standings when your longest win streak in the first month is only two games. The B’s have scored power-play goals in back-to-back games just once.
From an individual standpoint, several players have been unable to provide consistent scoring production. Bergeron enters November with a 10-game goalless drought, Reilly Smith has scored one goal in his last 11 games and Brad Marchand hadn’t scored an even-strength goal before tallying two against the Sabres on Thursday night. Veteran Simon Gagne has not been able to improve the team’s scoring production with one point in eight games.
Photo via Bob DeChiara/USA TODAY Sports Images
