Bruins Power Play Outage Area Of Concern For Boston
BOSTON — The Bruins had four power play opportunities, including a five-on-three for 1:37 in the first period against the Philadelphia Flyers but had nothing to show for it.
Boston managed just two shots on goal through the man advantages, and neither shot was a particularly high-danger chance.
The Bruins held possession for most of the time they were on the power play and moved the puck around the perimeter, but they couldn’t seem to find an angle to get a shot off.
“Quicker puck movement,” Montgomery said. “If you move the puck quick enough and you’re thinking shot first, (the opposing team) is not going to be in shot lanes. They’re one less player, especially five-on-three, they’re two less players.”
“PKs are good now,” Bruins captain Brad Marchand added. “They do a good job, too. But, yeah, we might need to try to throw some different looks at teams and try a few different things.”
Bruins defenseman Hampus Lindholm usually generates scoring opportunities from the point on the power play but was held shotless through 1:56 minutes of ice time on the man advantage. He echoed Montgomery’s thoughts on moving the puck.
“Moving pucks quick, doing the simple stuff. Don’t look for maybe the hard play,” Lindholm said. “Try to simplify a little bit to get the pucks to hard areas and not overthink it. Then, eventually, when the puck starts bouncing our way, those other plays are going to open up.”
The Flyers skaters blocked 28 Bruins shots making it difficult for Boston to generate any action directly in front of Philadelphia goalie Samuel Ersson.
“Maybe we need to be a little bit more direct,” Marchand said. “They’re a little perimetry that team, they play very tight on the inside. You need to get on the inside of them and get pucks to the net.
“We had some opportunities in the second. We didn’t do a good enough job of it in the third. But, you can’t play a perimeter against a team like that. We just need to get inside a little bit more.”
The Bruins head out of town for a quick two-game road trip against the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday and a rematch with the Flyers on Saturday.