Going into the season, there was a lot of questions surrounding the Boston Bruins special teams units with the departures of Torey Krug and former captain Zdeno Chara in free agency.
The Bruins have always been good at killing penalties under coach Bruce Cassidy and this year has been no different. The real questions were surrounding the power play. Would Boston be able to fill the void of Krug and his 26 man advantage assists from last season when they finished second in the shortened 2019-20 season to the Edmonton Oilers?
As the Bruins sit at the midway point of their 56-game 2021 season, the answers to those questions have been mixed.
Bruins have top-ranked penalty kill in the NHL.
This one should be a surprise to no one. The Black and Gold lead the league in penalty killing 28 games into the season and they show no signs of slowing down.
They have killed 89.4-percent (%) of the opposing team’s opportunities, and have killed off 19 of their last 21 penalties. Boston has three shorthanded goals, with Patrice Bergeron scoring two and Brad Marchand tallying the other one.
Bergeron and Marchand are the top two forwards on the PK, while Charlie Coyle, Chris Wagner, Sean Kuraly, and Anders Bjork are just some of the forwards who have frustrated their opponents.
On defense, Jeremy Lauzon was a key piece of the unit before he fractured his hand, as was Brandon Carlo and his long reach before his injury on March 5. Charlie McAvoy, who does just about everything, and rookie Jakub Zboril have been key recently as well on the PK.
Without a doubt, the Bruins penalty-killing unit has done a nice job this season keeping them in games with the success of everyone and it looks like losing Chara on the unit has hurt.