Kalman: Struggling Bruins Power Play A Defensive Liability In Rangers Loss
BOSTON (CBS) -- As if the Bruins power play wasn't already killing them, the man advantage hit a new low on Saturday.
The Bruins allowed shorthanded goals to New York Rangers forwards Derek Stepan and Kevin Hayes in a 5-2 loss at TD Garden, ending their winning streak at three games and dropping their home record to 1-3-0.
The two shorthanded goals put the Rangers ahead 3-1 and they never looked back.
"Overaggressive might be one term. And not realizing that you still have to defend when you don't have the puck and you can't lackadaisical and we did that tonight," Bruins coach Claude Julien said. "I don't know if I want to call it sloppy but certainly it definitely hurt our game tonight and our chances. And that was probably in my mind the biggest issue for the hockey game."
The Bruins have now allowed as many shorthanded goals as they've scored power play goals. They once won the Stanley Cup with a putrid power play, but with the current roster's deficiencies both on the back end and up front, they're going to have to solve their problem pretty quickly in order to be in a position to return to the Stanley Cup playoffs after two years of not qualifying.
The Bruins seemed to have solved their power-play problems from prior seasons when they ranked seventh in the NHL last season with a 20.5 success rate. Through 11 games this season, they're 3-for-38. And now instead of neutralizing the Bruins offense, the power play is digging the team into a hole.
New York went ahead 2-1 on a shorthanded goal by Derek Stepan on a 2-on-1. Sure Rask made the save and the puck went off Stepan's skate, but the Bruins had no business allowing a 2-on-1 after Brad Marchand's pass near the New York net was deflected. David Krejci got caught gliding and spectating.
Similarly Hayes scored on a breakaway after a Patrice Bergeron shot rebounded off the end glass in the Rangers' end. This time it was Austin Czarnik playing the role of forward too deep in the offensive zone and caught watching the play go the other way rather than backing up his teammate.
It's one thing to hunt for goals. It's another to pretend offense is all that matters (which is ironic considering the mindset Claude Julien engraves on his players' brains about using defense to generate offense).
"It's really easy to kind of say you know what should've been done," Krejci said. "But at the same time, you're going out there, you're trying to score a goal or at least create momentum for your team, the next line if you don't score on the power play. They got two shorthanded so that's not how you're going to win hockey games."
Ryan Spooner's power-play goal against Tampa Bay on Thursday was the Bruins' first in five games. Although they went just 1-for-4, Boston made the Lightning work to kill off the other man advantages. Even against the Rangers, there were some solid looks. Nonetheless, the chances don't make up for the lack of a goal and for the unforgivable shorthanded goals allowed.
With Bergeron and David Backes healthy, the Bruins have all their power-play pieces together. There's no excuse for failing to pay attention to details and supporting each other in the offensive zone to make sure there are no leaks even when the power play is in a drought.
"The puck movement's there but we've got to realize there's two parts to it and that's when the puck's cleared or there's rebounds we've got to make sure we're skating back into our defensive zone and working for that," defenseman Torey Krug said.
