Special Team’s Failures Magnified In Bruins Shutout Loss Vs. Maple Leafs

Issues on both the power play and penalty kill were unmistakenly at the forefront when the Boston Bruins were blanked by the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday night.

The Black and Gold fumbled and stumbled their way to an 0-for-6 mark on the man advantage and surrendered three power-play goals for the fourth time this season.

“Our special teams, the numbers are the numbers, right?” Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery told reporters in Toronto, per team-provided audio. “The players that get the privilege of either being on the penalty kill or the power play, along with us coaches, need to be better with our plan. And we need to be better in our execution.”

The Bruins were shorthanded seven times in the contest, but Montgomery believed Boston could have “avoided” only a couple of penalties and pinpointed the team’s biggest failure on the man advantage.

“In general, I thought we drew a lot of penalties by playing the right way at five-on-five,” Montgomery said. “Just our power play didn’t have the success theirs did. … That’s probably been the biggest failure is our entries from our breakouts. But we’re winning faceoffs and we’re not executing plays. If you win the draw, you shouldn’t have to break out.”

Despite dropping three of their last five games, the Bruins bench boss isn’t worried about the team’s morale.

“Our group’s fine,” Montgomery said. “We feel we’re getting better. Our habits and details are growing. You don’t like losing 4-0, they got three power-play goals. We look at our five-on-five game, we don’t think we’re giving up that much.

“Offensively we’re starting to build. We still don’t have the o-zone time that we would love to have, but that’s a work in progress.”

The Bruins will look to get back in the win column when they host the Calgary Flames at TD Garden on Thursday night.