Back in December, I wrote about a trio of statistics that defined the Boston Bruins turbulent season in its first two months. Some of those statistics were good, but others weren’t so good. And it turns out that, even a month and a half later, there are still some problems.
So, how bad has it gotten for the Bruins in what are some of the more important stats that most of the NHL’s better teams possess? Take a look below and I’m breaking down three of them, two of which have been a thorn in this team’s side all year long.
1 - Penalty Kill
Yeah, the Bruins special teams has been horrid all season and it starts with the power play. But before we get into that, I want to talk about the penalty kill, which is at least salvageable at this point.
Right now, it’s a not-so-good, but not meager 75.00 percent, about 3.63 below the league average heading into Monday night. But the major problem here is that the Bruins have been penalized 168 times, 23 more than the league average of 145.
This wouldn’t be as much of a problem if opponents didn’t draw them into so many penalties. But until they learn a thing or two about playing a more disciplined game or figure out how to play sound hockey at 4-on-5, this is going to be a problem.
2 - Power Play
The Bruins power play is still terrible, even here in February when you’d have thought they’d make at least a dent into fixing it. There, that’s the short answer, and if you don’t want to read about how horrific it is, please proceed to the next section, where I’ll at least leave you with a glimmer of hope in this grimdark article.
Anyway, onto the long-form, or at least somewhat long-form, answer: Boston is currently converting 15.15 percent of their power play opportunities. As for the number of times they’ve scored at 5-on-4? 25. All while the league average sits at 31, and a conversion percentage of 21.37.
Yeah, that’s a sad story in and of itself. But it gets even worse. The Bruins have allowed an astounding seven short-handed goals this season. That’s epic in all the worst ways. But hey, at least they’ve scored five short-handed goals themselves.
3 - Save percentage in all situations
At 5-on-5, the Bruins are one of the better teams in the league between the pipes. Don’t believe me? Well, before Monday’s slate of games - just one on this particular Monday - Boston is just above league average with a 0.921 save percentage. The problem is the way things have gone in all other situations, as the two seconds above may have foreshadowed.
The league-wide average in save percentage is 0.895, but for the Bruins, it’s a meager 0.887. Yeah, that’s pretty bad, but the good news is that this team does have Jeremy Swayman, someone who is more than capable of playing a consistent game. It just hasn’t materialized yet, but maybe he’s been holding back until the sense of urgency needs to get higher.