Boston Bruins: 3 Key Players and Their Out-of-Character Struggles
The Boston Bruins have struggled since the ‘Return To Play’ and now face a real prospect of starting the Stanley Cup Playoffs on a four-game losing streak.
Of course, this depends which version of the Boston Bruins decides to play against the Washington Capitals today, but every indication in recent games is that it’ll be another lacklustre affair, leading us to a very challenging first round opponent.
Torey Krug in an interview with NBC Sports Boston confirmed exactly what the eye-test points to. The round-robin play-in format isn’t one the team have been able to ramp up their intensity for.
While it was envisaged as a way for all teams to get competitive and intense action in the lead-up to the start of the Stanley Cup Playoffs proper, the regular season first-place team hasn’t been able to make good on what should’ve been a top seeding.
Even more disappointing is the fact that the top seed would’ve lined us up against ‘Original Six’ rivals, the Montreal Canadiens, who upset the Penguins to advance to the first round as the regular-season’s 24th placed team.
Perhaps, it really is just a mental block leading to this lack of intensity and come the start of the playoffs proper, the Boston Bruins can flick the switch; only time will tell.
It’s vital that all of the team steps it up either way, not least the star players. For a player with 48 regular-season goals, David Pastrnak hasn’t been that big of a threat so far. Though, with that said, he’s still been one of the better players since the restart.
In fact, their have been struggles throughout the Bruins line-up, but three key players stand-out in particular, especially as they’re usually some of the more reliable guys on the team.
Patrice Bergeron
Perhaps the most surprising name on the list of players struggling since the restart is Boston Bruins veteran first-line center, Patrice Bergeron.
However, that has been exactly the case. Despite being a strong candidate for the Selke Trophy and usually being one of the more consistent players in the league, Bergeron hasn’t seemed quite right since play resumed.
The usually unflappable Bergeron has a giveaway to his name, which even though it sounds silly given such a small even-strength sample size of just 30 minutes, speaks volumes to him not being himself.
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In the regular season, Bergeron played 61 games and only had 17 giveaways total when the two sides were evenly matched. On average, he made one such mistake every 47 minutes on the ice at even-strength.
Perhaps we put too much into this singular statistic, perhaps it’s merely a case, as Krug suggested, that the Boston Bruins haven’t been able to find a play-off level intensity to their game just yet.
Far from just that stat-line though, it’s everywhere that he hasn’t looked quite himself. His face-off percentage, while still above 50% isn’t anywhere near his regular season numbers.
He even has the fourth line grouping being preferred for defensive zone draws. In itself, that’s not wholly unusual, especially with the Bruins’ reliance upon their top line to produce offense, but it’s still somewhat telling for a perennial Selke Trophy candidate.
Given his maintenance days and missed practices, you have to wonder whether there’s a little more occurring than meets the eye. There’s every chance Bergeron could be playing injured or at least definitely not at 100% fitness.
It’s hard to speculate given how little we find out about injuries at this point, but something certainly seems off for a player that is usually one of the Boston Bruins’ most reliable and consistent on the ice.
Zdeno Chara
The captain has struggled, in fairness, for a longer time than just these round-robin games. He’s in his forties and it’s starting to show, especially against teams with a bit of pace to their game.
Chara is rocking a meagre 38.10% Corsi For in his thirty minutes of even-strength ice time during the round-robin tournament. Simply put, he wasn’t able to get his stick on the puck against either Tampa Bay or Philadelphia.
Of course, Zdeno Chara isn’t the puck carrier in his defensive pairing with Charlie McAvoy. He is there or his size, his reach and the intimidation factor.
It’s just unfortunate that him and his partner McAvoy rock the second worst Expected Goals Against at even-strength in the two games thus far with a nasty 1.42 expected per game. David Krejci is the only player doing worse at 1.6 expected goals per game.
Now you can put a lot of this on his age and perhaps he is genuinely not playing like this round-robin tournament means anything.
We saw Zdeno Chara put his body on the line last season, ensuring we went to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final despite a puck destroying his jaw en-route and spending at least two games only eating his pre-game meal through a straw.
His poor form thus far could simply that he is lacking game fitness and given his years, he likely needs more than a couple of warm-up fixtures to find his sweet spot conditioning-wise.
He has been blocking shots, he has been dishing a few hits and he has an assist to his name at even-strength; not bad considering how few goals the Bruins have managed to score. There is still plenty of compete left in him yet.
Bruce Cassidy, however, would be wise to limit his minutes somewhat when we enter the Stanley Cup Playoffs proper. He needs more time to get his wheels, which even when they’re going these days, aren’t going at great speed.
Brad Marchand
It’s a toss-up as to whether Brad Marchand has been more underwhelming in the round-robin series or whether David Krejci has been.
The nod goes to Brad Marchand because simply put Krejci has shown himself to be declining in recent seasons and his dip in form isn’t really anything all that new.
Krejci has a hard role as the second-line center on a team that features an elite center in Patrice Bregeron, but he hasn’t been able to help elevate his winger’s games, namely Jake Debrusk and that’s a big disappointment and concern ahead of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Even more concerning than all of that though is the average performances we’ve seen thus far from Brad Marchand.
Along with Patrice Bergeron, Marchand is normally one of the most reliable guys on the team to spark offense and get things going, but much like most of the team, he seems to be lacking any sort of intensity to his game.
Perhaps he’s been told to reign in all of his antics completely or perhaps he’s actually struggling to find his inner-pest given he’s sharing relatively close quarters with most of the likely recipients. Either that or he’s just not prepared to stir people up in a somewhat meaningless round-robin tournament.
No even-strength points, a couple of shots and a couple of rebounds created doesn’t exactly read like much of a calling card for Marchand. Yes, some of his struggles can be pinned on his line-mate Bergeron, but Pastrnak is still finding ways to create offense.
In all honesty, Marchand is the guy that would benefit most from simplifying as the Bruins head into the playoffs. Not trying to get too fancy and just putting the puck on net, search for a rebound or a miscue by a goalie.
Next. How hard are we making this for ourselves?. dark
All in all, the Boston Bruins don’t quite look ready to go. They may surprise us all and flick a switch when the Stanley Cup is actually on the line, but right now it’s not looking that promising.
Statistics courtesy of Natural Stat Trick.