With how they are currently constructed, the Bruins need good special teams if they hope to have any success.
But while their power play remains a weapon (fourth in the NHL with a 25.7%), the penalty kill has suddenly hit the skids. The B’s have allowed at least one power-play goal against in their last five games, six PP goals in all. The slump has dropped them all the way down to 18th in the league going into Saturday’s game against the Vancouver Canucks.
After two losses in three games going into Saturday had the B’s on the outside looking into the playoff structure to start the day on Saturday, the PK is clearly part of the problem.
“We’ve been talking about this a lot,” said Sean Kuraly, usually one of the first forwards over the boards for a kill. “It kind of goes through ebbs and flows. The (opposition’s) power play now get to watch 36 games of what we’re doing and it’s a copycat league where they start looking at trends of what teams are doing to break the same system. There are multiple teams running the same system as us in the league, minus a few nuances. And I think you just see them working and finding ways to beat it. Now it’s an ebb and flow where it’s time to readjust to what the power play is doing.
“We have such three-point pressure now on these umbrellas, you’re not seeing as many one-timers, it’s more down and into the bumper or down into the back door, or a plunger coming through and it’s all on the same side of the ice because basically we’re taking away the weak side and playing the 4-on-3 on half the ice. So, why has it slipped? Listen, I think the power plays are good and sometimes we need to readjust.”
There is also a momentum to the PK, and it can go either way.
“We’re not oblivious to the fact we’ve given up a goal in the last five on the PK,” said Kuraly. “It’s like anything. Someone who has scored is thinking about scoring a little more, just like anything in this game. A power play that’s cold is thinking about scoring more. It’s a pretty standard thing. We’re definitely thinking that we desperately have to get the kill going and sometimes it can make you do a little too much or a little extra. That could be the case.”
Coach Marco Sturm sees an erosion of details.
“I think it starts with our clears. We’ve not been really good,” said Sturm. “We’ve been struggling a little bit on finishing for the whole two minutes with those little details. One little mistake and power plays in this league, they’re getting so good at it. You can’t have little breakdowns like that.”
And it’s also a matter of the players simply playing better.
“A lot of times it’s up to the individual, too,” said Sturm. “We can’t have those moments, especially early on in the game. We need the PK to be really good moving forward.”…
Sturm made a couple of alterations with his forwards going into the Canucks game. First, he flipped Morgan Geekie and Marat Khusnutdinov, putting the young Russian up with David Pastrnak and Elias Lindholm and putting Morgan Geekie with Pavel Zacha and Casey Miittelstadt.
“We went back to Khusy on that first line just to give them a little bit more jump and make those other lines a little more even,” said Sturm.
Also, he scratched Alex Steeves and inserted Jeffrey Viel. Viel had not played since November 29 and that was his first game since suffering a head injury in Anaheim on November 19.
Sturm expected the 28-year-old Viel to be ready to go despite the inaction.
“It’s a hard job but one of the reasons he’s still around is because of that,” said Sturm. “He’s a very good professional. He’s been there before. Does he like it? No, but he’s trying to stay ready. We always communicate during this process and I always tell him to stay ready and here it is. This is his opportunity.”
Steeves had made the best of his opportunity when he was recalled on December 6, providing some secondary scoring and physicality, but as the team has gotten a little more healthy and he’s been slotted further down the lineup, he hasn’t had quite the same impact. He has one goal in his past six games.
“He gave us everything. He took advantage of that opportunity and he was awesome. It’s not really a punishment. His game dropped a little bit but it’s hard in this league to keep that up every night,” said Sturm. “So it’s more like….resetting him again and calming him down again and getting a little more juice out of him off the ice a little bit and get him ready for when he comes back.”….
Viktor Arvidsson, out since December 11 with a recurrence of a lower body injury that kept him out seven games earlier in the season, took part in the morning skate. It was the first time that he had joined the team since suffering the injury and Sturm said he looked better, but he doesn’t expect he’ll be available for Sunday’s game against the Red Wings.
