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Kalman: Bruins Have To Accept Offensive Limitations, Focus on Winning 2-1 Games

BOSTON  (CBS) -- With 9:31 elapsed in the third period and the Bruins trailing by one goal on the penalty kill Saturday night, Boston forward Dominic Moore set up Austin Czarnik, who was 20 feet from the goal in front of Toronto goaltender Frederik Andersen.

Andersen kicked the shot away. Twenty-two seconds later the Maple Leafs scored to go up 3-1 and they went on to a 4-1 victory at TD Garden, the Bruins' third straight loss and second straight against a last-place team.

The Bruins have scored two or fewer goals in 20 of their 29 games and that Czarnik missed opportunity not only summed up the Bruins' season but Czarnik's night and season. He has two goals in 25 games.

Against Toronto, Czarnik had two shots on net, one shot blocked and two shots that missed the net.

"I think it's just being hungry," Czarnik said. "Obviously I want to score goals, I just have to will it in pretty much. The one-timer in the slot where I just completely missed it, that just can't happen. That's what I kind of mean by that."

Luckily for Czarnik, there's plenty of blame for the Bruins' scoring woes to go around. Everyone not named David Pastrnak or Brad Marchand, who scored his eighth goal of the season in the loss, is to blame. Ryan Spooner has three goals in 28 games, Riley Nash has one goal in 29 games. The third line, regardless of personnel, hasn't scored in a month.

And even blessed Patrice Bergeron hasn't been picking up the slack. He has four goals in 26 games. When Bergeron was on pace for 30 goals in seasons past, he often talked about how he didn't care how much he scored. Now he has to care because someone has to start filling the net.

"I have high expectations for myself," said the three-time Selke Trophy winner as the best defensive forward in the NHL. "So I don't think I obviously need to tell you that I don't know. I'm well aware of it. And the only way to get out of it is by believing and keep going at it and finding ways."

Belief might be hard to come by because we're getting to the point of the season where players can't salvage their season. A trade might be necessary or at least general manager Don Sweeney is going to have to consider making more call-ups from Providence of the AHL. The Bruins added Danton Heinen on Saturday and he did little to help the cause with one shot on goal in 14:00 of ice time. Jake DeBrusk and Peter Cehlarik are waiting down on the farm. Frank Vatrano is working his way back from injury. There might be a spark coming from somewhere, but the Bruins are in a tough stretch and can't wait for help. They have to take on Montreal, Pittsburgh and Anaheim – no one's idea of pushovers compared to Toronto and Colorado the past two games – in the next three contests.

Coach Claude Julien is desperate for more goals.

"You want to spread your scoring, our third line needs to give us some production," he said. "It's got to be spread out, but at the same time I don't care who scores them, we just have to score."

Julien pointed out Moore's seven goals and Tim Schaller's four goals as examples of the Bruins having the capability to get strikes from their bottom six. But that might be a fluke based on their histories. The fact is the rest of the struggling players, both up front and on defense, don't have much of a track record for scoring the NHL level. When you remove Matt Beleskey, and you're looking to Spooner, Czarnik and Nash to contribute, you might be asking too much. Even on defense, the Bruins are leaning on rookie Brandon Carlo (four shot attempts blocked) and veteran Torey Krug, who for all he does for the team has just one goal in 29 games as an "offensive defenseman." At some point you have to wonder if Krug is the type of player the Bruins thought he was.

Against Toronto the Bruins lost their defensive structure and didn't trust the system. They seemed to be cheating a bit too much for offense, and none came. No one's saying the Bruins will never score more than two goals but they have to assume they won't and just worry about the defensive end. With their system and Tuukka Rask's play in net, they can grind out enough 2-1 wins until Sweeney can do something the will give the lineup a real jolt.

Meanwhile, Czarnik and the rest will try to find another level of intensity that can get them out of their doldrums.

"Just hard work," Czarnik said of the solution to Boston's woes. "Doing the right thing every single day, working on your shot every single day, things like that. Things that will make you successful ... and you have to be determined to want to get better."

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