Penalties Area Of Concern For Bruins Amid Early Season Struggles

The Bruins are off to a 3-4-1 start to the 2024-25 campaign and an area of concern early on is the amount times Boston has been shorthanded in eight contests.

The Black and Gold lead the league with 44 minor penalties and have allowed nine power-play goals for a 77.5% successfull kill rate.

Bruins analyst Andy Brickley and in-studio host Adam Pellerin discussed the lack of discipline on Thursday’s episode of NESN’s “The Hockey Hub” podcast.

“I don’t envy the coaches that have to deal with this because it’s so frustrating,” Brickley said. “At times you don’t understand it and you need to be smarter. You need to avoid penalties when you’re 200 feet from your own net and there’s no danger.”

Brickley said there are some penalties that players don’t mind killing off because it was a result of a “really good hit” but the officials deem it boarding, but the interfence or tripping penalties in the offensive zone are a different story.

“You get one of those penalties and it’s so defeating to you emotionally and mentally when those things happen,” Brickley explained. “And then if you give up a power-play goal on top of that, it really hurts.

“This is an area of concern with this Bruins team. Far too many minor penalties at the wrong time in the wrong areas of the ice that be cleaned up with better discipline. Discipline comes in so many different ways. Whether it’s something as simple as a line change or a way you can dump the puck in in order to continue to make the line change.”

Brickley inquired as to how the Bruins’ coaching staff could address the team taking so many penalties and even joked about how clubs used to handle things back in the day.

To hear more of Brickley’s insights, you can watch the full segment on YouTube or listen Spotify.