Boston Bruins: 3 Keys to Victory Against the Pittsburgh Penguins
Following an outstanding showing against the Philadelphia Flyers, the Boston Bruins start the week with a two-game series against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
While this Penguins team has lost a step since their back-to-back Stanley Cup wins in 2016 and 2017, they can compete with the best in the league on any given night.
With both teams sitting in the top half of the Eastern Division, this series will be another early test for the Bruins to show their meddle and see where they stack up among the Eastern Division’s best.
If the Bruins are going to beat the Penguins, here are three key factors that will contribute to their success.
3. The Boston Bruins will need to slow down the dynamic duo of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.
The Bruins defensive corps will need to bring their best effort in order to slow down a potent Pittsburgh Penguins offense. The Penguins offense is led by perennial all-star Sidney Crosby.
Through the first six games of the season, Crosby has started on a torrid pace and leads the team with three goals and seven points while logging almost 20 minutes of ice time per game.
While Crosby draws most of the attention, second line center Evgeni Malkin is just as talented. Malkin has started a little slower, with only one goal and one assist thus far, but he can get hot quickly and is always a danger whenever the puck is on his stick.
In years past, Zdeno Chara would typically draw most of the ice time against Crosby in order to minimize his ability on the offensive end and they would trust the other two defensive pairings to keep Malkin in check. With Chara having left for Washington this offseason, it will be interesting to see which Bruins defensive pairing will be drawing the matchup with Crosby.
It’s likely that they will turn to Brandon Carlo due to his strong defensive acumen, but a physical presence like Kevan Miller might be an attractive option to slow down the offensive attack.
2. The Boston Bruins will need to stay disciplined and win the special teams battle.
In order to slow down the Penguins’ top stars, it’s pivotal that the Bruins are to win the special teams battle.
Heading into this game, the Penguins find themselves in the top ten in power play percentage with a 27.8% success rate so far in the season and have scored five of their nineteen goals thus far on the man advantage.
While the Bruins’ 90% success rate on the penalty kill has been an early confidence-booster, they haven’t yet had to face a power play unit as potent as the Penguins and will need to steer clear of the penalty box to minimize the amount of ice time that unit gets.
On the flip side, the Bruins’ 35.3% success rate on the power play currently ranks sixth in the league while the Penguins penalty kill (76.2%) finds itself in the bottom half.
The Bruins’ ability to draw penalties and to stay disciplined will be instrumental towards limiting the Penguins offense and ultimately defeating them.
1. The Boston Bruins will need to test goaltender Tristan Jarry with shots early and often.
Heading into this past off-season, the Penguins found themselves in a familiar situation as they had to make a choice between which of two goalies would be the future of the franchise.
Following their second Stanley Cup in a row in 2017, the Penguins decided that Matt Murray was the future between the pipes and allowed Marc-Andre Fleury to be selected by the Vegas Golden Knights in the expansion draft.
Following three up-and-down years from Murray, this past offseason the Penguins elected to trade Murray to the Senators and to rely on Tristan Jarry as the netminder going forward.
While Jarry certainly earned the starting job with his stellar play last year, he has struggled to start this season with a .821 save percentage and a 5.28 goals against average through his first three starts of this season.
While his struggles are likely to end at some point, this early-season funk may make him ripe for the picking for a Boston offense that is currently second in the league with 35.3 shots on goal per game.
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The Bruins should be focused on getting shots on goal early and often to test Jarry and take advantage of his early season woes.