Bruins Are Best In League, But They Still Need To Improve In This Area

The Boston Bruins skated into their bye week with a 31-9-9 NHL-leading record after trouncing the Philadelphia Flyers, 6-2, at Wells Fargo Center on Saturday.

Coming out of the holiday break in December, the Bruins are 12-3-2, outscoring their opponents 73-43 in the 17-game span. Offensively, Boston has proven its production has not fallen off, much to the dismay of the naysayer predictions before the season.

Bruins goaltender Linus Ullmark was the benefactor of a couple of Boston’s lopsided wins, including the 9-4 dominance over the Montreal Canadiens on Jan. 20.

“It’s always great,” Ullmark said, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “We know we can do it every night. This league is unpredictable in that way. You just have to stay patient with it. Sometimes you get all the bounces, and sometimes you don’t.”

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Boston has always been at the top of the league when it comes to penalty kill and power play stats, but this season has seen more of a roller coaster of ups and downs for the Bruins.

The Black and Gold have been shorthanded 180 times through the first 49 games and have allowed 31 goals for a penalty kill percentage of 82.7%. On the man advantage, Boston has converted 26% of the time, scoring 39 goals on 150 power plays.

“I think special teams have been lacking a little bit maybe this last stretch here,” Hampus Lindholm told reporters following the Bruins win over the Flyers, per the team. “We’ve been playing really good 5-on-5. There’s always things to work on.”

Lindholm added: “That’s why I love this team. Everybody’s committed here and coming into practice here after the break, working hard and getting back into action.”

Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery noted the team’s togetherness and intelligence as two factors in Boston’s success, but there’s still work to be done in the defensive zone.

“We still need to get better at boxing out at our net, covering the slot,” Montgomery said, per team. “Our goaltenders are still having to make too many good saves. Besides that, just continuing to build on our offensive game.”

The B’s have 10 days to rest with the bye week coinciding with the All-Star Game at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto on Feb. 3. They return to the ice to take on the Calgary Flames at TD Garden on Feb. 6.