NHL trade deadline: Upgrades are needed as the Bruins’ special teams struggles
As of mid-February, there’s plenty to appreciate about the Boston Bruins’ position in the NHL standings.
With a 32-11-10 record (74 points), the Original Six franchise is leading the Eastern Conference rankings. They are sixth in goals scored (178) and third in goals against (136), and they have the second-best goal difference in the league (plus-46). Actually, only Boston is among the top six teams in terms of goals against and goals scored.
These patterns relate to the Bruins’ recent struggles on special teams. Tuesday night’s 3-2 shootout loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Bruins’ probable first-round playoff opponent, highlighted the team’s power play shortcomings. Despite having six power-play opportunities, Boston failed to score any points.
Following the game, Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery told reporters, “Our power play needs to come through for us there.” “I can’t go 0 for 6.” We need to focus on that region at this time.”
What ailed Tuesday’s power play? Montgomery remarked, “I just don’t think our puck decisions and our puck movement were quick enough.” “I don’t think we were able to beat their penalty kill execution with the puck passing crisp enough.”
The Bruins are currently playing seven games at home. During the first four games of that run, they have only capitalized on one of their 17 power-play opportunities.
The Bruins, who rank eighth overall this season with a 24 percent success rate on the power play, have a wealth of effective options to use. But this team would benefit greatly from the addition of another middle-six forward who can finish off some of the scoring opportunities created by the man advantage.
The more glaring issue right now is the penalty kill. The Bruins had the third-best penalty kill (85.8 percent) from Opening Night through the start of the holiday break on Dec. 24. But since the break ended, the B’s rank 25th on the penalty kill with a 76.3 percent success rate. Boston gave up a power-play goal to Lightning star Nikita Kucherov on Tuesday night.
The Bruins’ overabundance of penalty takes is one issue. This season, they have had 317:17 of ice time due to a lack of personnel. The only team with more penalty kill time is the Anaheim Ducks. The Bruins rank 26th out of 32 teams in allowing opponents to have 296 scoring opportunities during power plays.
It would be a tremendous improvement for this team to add a defenseman who can clear traffic from the front of the net, win puck fights in difficult areas of the ice, kill penalties, and block shots.
Derek Forbort is among the Bruins’ most effective penalty takers. Due to injury, he has missed 25 of the 53 games this season. Can we count on him to stay healthy and perform well enough to make a deep postseason run? Increased defensive depth would lessen that possibility. Special teams are crucial and frequently have a significant impact on the playoffs.
