BOSTON — The Bruins’ season opener, aside from the lopsided 6-2 score, looked a lot like many games from last season: excellent puck possession, plenty of scoring chances created, few goals.
Saturday night’s early-season showdown against the rival Montreal Canadiens — the Habs’ only trip to TD Garden this season — should play out in a similar fashion if recent history is any indication. In the last eight Bruins-Canadiens games, Boston has won the possession battle by controlling an average of 55 percent of 5-on-5 shot attempts, while owning the shots-on-goal advantage in six of the matchups.
This edge in possession and shots on net has resulted in only 1.625 goals per game for the B’s, though.
Montreal was one of the worst puck possession teams among those that qualified for the 2015 Stanley Cup playoffs, according to several metrics. That hasn’t changed through one game this campaign. The Habs were outplayed at times by the Toronto Maple Leafs in Wednesday’s opener, but they won 3-1 thanks to some timely scoring and another brilliant performance from reigning MVP goaltender Carey Price.
The Bruins will create chances versus the Habs on Saturday; they just need to bury them. After all, Montreal had a minus-8 SOG differential and a minus-7 shot attempt differential at even strength against a Toronto team that struggles in puck possession.
Capitalizing on these scoring chances will require a better effort from every Bruins forward, particularly the team’s three best offensive players from the last two seasons: Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and David Krejci. These veterans haven’t played too well against Montreal over the last two seasons, combining for just two goals.
But the B’s cannot only rely on their top-six forwards to do the job. The bottom-six guys must step up as well, and that hasn’t happened against the Habs in recent memory, most notably in Boston’s second-round loss in the 2014 playoffs.
One trio that must improve from Thursday’s defeat is the third line of Jimmy Hayes, Ryan Spooner and Brett Connolly. This line struggled to possess the puck (all three had a Corsi-for percentage under 50), lost five of seven faceoffs and tallied zero points against Winnipeg. This line will be relied on all season to help provide the necessary scoring depth to improve an offense that ranked 22nd in goals scored in 2014-15. Without consistent production from these players, opposing head coaches will have an easier time shutting down Boston’s top two lines.
The Bruins haven’t beaten the Canadiens at home since the 2011-12 campaign, and they are 1-7 (4-11 including playoffs) against the Habs in the regular season since the beginning of the 2013-14 campaign. Another loss would put the B’s in an 0-2 hole with a Columbus Day matinee against the defending Eastern Conference champion Tampa Bay Lightning next on the schedule.
While the blue line is a concern without veteran defensemen Zdeno Chara and Dennis Seidenberg healthy and in the lineup, the offense has to be more opportunistic for the Bruins to consistently win games. Starting goalie Tuukka Rask is going to be good or great on most nights, like he’s been for the last three seasons, but his teammates have to give him some help.
His margin for error is much too thin.
Thumbnail photo via Winslow Townson/USA TODAY Sports Images
