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Kalman: Lack Of Reliable Power Play, Reliance On Pastrnak Hampering Bruins

By Matt Kalman, CBS Boston

BOSTON (CBS) – If you're unsure how to feel about the Bruins offense right now, you have reason to be confused.

On the one hand their 4-2 loss to the Colorado Avalanche at TD Garden on Thursday was their 19th game in 28 contests this season they scored two or fewer goals.

But on the other hand they've scored nine goals in the past three games.

And yet on the other hand (or is it foot?) five of those nine goals have come from David Pastrnak, who scored both goals in the loss to the Avalanche and now is tied for the NHL lead with Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby with 18.

If you have to make a decision, you should lean toward being disappointed and concerned about the Bruins' offense rather than confident and hopeful.

Tim Schaller, David Backes, Dominic Moore and Colin Miller have the other four goals during the Bruins' past three games, which featured a 1-1-1 record. Where are the Bruins' best players right now? They're not on the score sheet, that's for sure. Patrice Bergeron has four goals, Zdeno Chara and Torey Krug have one goal each and even Brad Marchand has gone cold with one goal in his past 10 games.

Right now Pastrnak is a one-man gang and the Bruins can't survive that way.

"Secondary scoring makes good teams great," Krug said after the loss. "We're trying to find it right now. Obviously Pasta's been great for us and he can change a game. He changed the momentum tonight. Unfortunately we couldn't come up with that next goal and help our team even more."

The Bruins aren't looking for secondary scoring, they're looking for primary scoring from their primetime players. Against the Avalanche, the Bruins had a built-in excuse for their lackluster play because they were on the second half of a back-to-back coming off a 4-3 overtime loss in an 8 p.m. start on Wednesday. All the more reason they should've kept things simple, kept their shifts short and tried to grind the Avalanche.

Instead they got too cute, got lackadaisical with the puck and allowed a team that has lost six in a row exploit them up and down the ice. There was no better example of the Bruins trying to do too much in desperation for offense and in their exhaustion than Krug trying to dive to keep a puck in the offensive zone during a first-period power play. Krug couldn't get back up to his feet and Avalanche start Nathan MacKinnon was off on a breakaway and a goal that gave the Avalanche a 2-0 lead.

"It's just one of those plays, I thought instinctively I could get there and keep them hemmed in," Krug said. "You could tell even on the breakaway [MacKinnon] was tired. So if I keep that in, we keep them hemmed in, hopefully we get a couple chances. But we've got to be better."

The shorthanded goal was the fourth against Boston this season. If that wasn't bad enough, the power play has become a drag on any hopes the Bruins have of generation non-Pastrnak offense. With its 0-for-2 on Thursday the Bruins power play is 2-for-23 in the past eight games. The Bruins power-play performers are getting outworked and outsmarted and they've become stale. The first unit is too reliant on Patrice Bergeron being the bumper. There's no fear in the penalty killers. And the second unit is just discombobulated.

"I just think guys might be overthinking play," said Marchand, a member of the Bruins' second unit. "You saw our power play last year, our guys were good at just playing and not focusing on doing certain things but just making plays with what they saw. And it worked. We have the players that are capable of doing that. And they will."

Bruins power play players who spoke after the loss were confident there wasn't a need for personnel changes. But it seems like a waste to have Zdeno Chara's atomic slap shot continue to watch the man advantage from the bench. Maybe the first group needs a left-handed shot like Marchand instead of a right-handed shot Backes on the goal line in an effort to duplicate the success the Bruins have with Loui Eriksson down low last season. And maybe Ryan Spooner shouldn't just get handed first-unit power-play ice time because of his potential as a producer and Boston could maybe better utilize David Krejci at a forward position instead of at one of the points.

Bruins coach Claude Julien has been reluctant to change personnel but it's getting late and the Bruins are ranked 25th.

At even strength or on the power play, the Bruins have to follow Pastrnak's lead and not just expect him to carry them.

"He's skating and not only that, he's taking pucks to the net," Julien said. "If more guys start doing that we're going to get more guys scoring some goals as well. You got to be hungry, you got to want to score."

Matt Kalman covers the Bruins for CBSBoston.com and also contributes to NHL.com and several other media outlets. Follow him on Twitter @MattKalman.

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