Could Bruins Benefit From Shaking Up Power Play Personnel?

The Boston Bruins are off to a 2-2-0 start in the 2024-25 NHL season. While the fourth line has been a catalyst for the Black and Gold, one area Boston has struggled with is the power play.

The Bruins have scored just two goals on 18 power play opportunities, for an ineffective 11.1% success rate, which ranks 22nd out of 32 teams in the league, even though they have the second-most opportunities. To make matters worse, the Bruins have surrendered as many goals while on the power play as they’ve scored themselves.

“I think we just got to be a little stronger in battles,” Marchand said of the power play struggles on Monday. “We need to outnumber teams. Just simplify. You have to outnumber the kill in the battles and come up with pucks. We haven’t come up with enough. … We haven’t had a ton of practice time, so it’s something we’ll definitely work on.”

David Pastrnak and Charlie McAvoy have scored Boston’s only two goals on the man advantage, and the two power units have generated 20 shots on goal as a whole. The first unit usually rolls out Pastrnak, McAvoy, Elias Lindholm, Brad Marchand, and Pavel Zacha, while the second unit primarily features Hampus Lindholm or Mason Lohrei with Morgan Geekie, Trent Frederic, Charlie Coyle and Justin Brazeau.

Boston has the right players to run a successful power play, but the chemistry just isn’t there yet for the Black and Gold. Could the Bruins benefit from shaking up the two units a bit? It couldn’t hurt, so why not try it early in the season?

With young sparkplug players like Lohrei and Matthew Poitras, changing up the power play units could be as simple as swapping out Zacha from the top unit with Poitras or putting Hampus Lindholm and Mason Lohrei on the back end with Coyle, Frederic and Poitras up front on the second unit. Boston could also try putting Marchand on the second unit with Coyle and Frederic, who have a natural chemistry together, and sliding either Poitras or Lohrei up on the first unit.

What players would you like to see on the Bruins’ power play units? Sound off on the comments below.