Bruins-Sharks Notes: Reilly Smith's Scoring Among Few Positives In Loss

Reilly Smith burst onto the NHL scene last season by scoring a career-high 20 goals and securing a top-six role for the Boston Bruins.

This season has been a struggle for the 23-year-old forward, one that has seen him move up and down the lineup at times in search of consistency.

Smith entered Thursday’s game against the San Jose Sharks with just four goals in 26 games and a 10-game goalless drought. That drought ended with two goals against the Sharks, including one just 29 seconds into the game en route to a 2-0 first intermission lead.

Smith played pretty well to start Boston’s four-game road trip. He was creating chances, going hard to the net and being more aggressive with his shot in the attacking zone, but the results just weren’t there. His hard work was rewarded Thursday and the Bruins need more scoring production from Smith to improve their 5-on-5 attack and struggling power play that’s scoreless on 16 straight chances.

Consistency has been a problem for Smith in his B’s career. He has four goalless droughts of eight or more games since the start of last season and 11 of his 26 goals for Boston have been scored in December.

— The Dennis Seidenberg-Kevan Miller pairing played poorly against the Sharks. This duo, which played together for 6:54 at even strength, was out-shot by a wide margin during 5-on-5, evidenced by Seidenberg’s minus-15 Corsi and Miller’s minus-17 Corsi. Seidenberg was much more effective with Dougie Hamilton.

— The Joe Pavelski-Logan Couture-Tommy Wingels line dominated. It combined for four goals (two apiece by Pavelski and Wingels) and controlled puck possession against the Patrice Bergeron line, which isn’t an easy task. Pavelski also won 7-of-9 faceoffs and had a team-high nine shots on goal.

— The Bruins gave up 81 shot attempts in all situations, 10 more than its previous high of 71 against the Minnesota Wild in October.

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— Boston’s fourth line scored another goal, it’s second of the road trip, when Gregory Campbell beat Sharks goalie Antti Niemi after a brilliant set up by Daniel Paille.

— The Bruins gave up four second-period goals, bringing their season total to 30. The Edmonton Oilers lead the league with 31.

— Carl Soderberg had zero shots in 17:01 of ice time. He also was a team-worst minus-19 Corsi at even strength — he was on the ice for seven Bruins shot attempts for, 26 against. Soderberg is scoreless in his last 11 games.

— Loui Eriksson was scoreless against San Jose with just one shot on goal in 18:48 of ice time. He’s scored only three goals in 27 games and is averaging 1.81 shots per game. That’s way too low for a player with 25-30 goal potential.