Boston Bruins: Power play dooms Boston against the Senators

The power play remained ice cold for the Boston Bruins in Monday night’s loss to the Ottawa Senators.

After one of the worst losses of the season, the Boston Bruins were in need of a bounce-back effort against the Ottawa Senators. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case.

Monday night’s matchup in Ottawa marked the start of a four-game road trip for Boston. With upcoming games against playoff teams, the Bruins had to leave Ottawa with two points.

Unfortunately for the Bruins, they fell behind the Senators early on and never could claw themselves back in. Ottawa led for more than 58 minutes en route to a 5-2 victory.

Boston had a number of chances to take control of the game, but they couldn’t seem to find those all-important goals. The Bruins finished with 40 shots on goal but only came out with two goals.

A big reason for Boston’s failures in Ottawa was its inefficient power play. To put it plainly, the power play doomed the Bruins Monday night.

The Bruins entered the game with one of the league’s top power play units. Through 30 games, the power play operated at 28.41% success rate.

However, Boston’s power play was ice cold over the past few games, and this remained the case against the Senators. The Bruins finished 1/5 on the power play Monday night. That one goal, by the way, came from Jake DeBrusk right after Ottawa scored an empty-netter to make it 4-1.

The first four power plays are really what did the Bruins in versus the Senators. Ottawa is one of the most-penalized teams in the league, and this held true against Boston. As they tried to hang on to a lead, the Senators continued to give Boston chances with the man advantage.

The Bruins, however, couldn’t do much with these chances. They kept pucks in and maintained possession in the offensive zone, but the forwards failed to make that final play.

In the second period, the Bruins had their best power play opportunity when David Pastrnak kept the puck in and fired a shot at the net. He missed, but Danton Heinen collected it off the boards and looked to have a sure goal. He couldn’t put the puck into a seemingly open net.

This play pretty much sums up Boston’s night in Ottawa: quality chances but few goals.

The good news is that the Bruins got Patrice Bergeron back in the lineup, and he didn’t look rusty at all. His spot in the bumper position should open things up for the power play. We didn’t see it against Ottawa, but we should see it soon.

Boston now faces a difficult back-to-back against Washington and Tampa Bay. Both teams pose bigger threats than Ottawa, so the Bruins need their power play to click into gear.