The Boston Bruins are not off to the greatest start this season. They currently sit with a 6-7-1 record, which is good for fourth in the Atlantic Division. Furthermore, they’ve been shut out in three of their last eight games. Head coach Jim Montgomery has had words with Brad Marchand and also benched his star player in David Pastrnak. You’d rather this kind of start now than in March, but the Bruins need to be sharper.
This is a team that has struggled mightily during five-on-five play and has been searching for an influx of offense. Also, the special teams’ play has not executed as much as you’d like it to. If there is one area that needs to improve, it is the penalty kill.
Penalty Trouble Has Become Costly
Whatever the case may be, the Bruins have become a heavy-penalized team. As it currently stands, they have the most penalty minutes with 175 and the next closest team is the Los Angeles Kings with 155. Newly-signed defenseman Nikita Zadorov leads the team in that regard (25 minutes), but also seeing stars like Pastrnak with 16 penalty minutes isn’t ideal. Having your best player take himself out of the game is tough. Is it due to frustration? Is it all mental? Is it personnel that’s being deployed? Players like Derek Forbort and Jake DeBrusk are gone. Both were good penalty killers and responsible defensively. In fact, the Bruins had a success rate of 82.2% with DeBrusk, which is huge. Whatever the case may be, the Bruins have gotten them into trouble and it’s become a problem.
That’s not a recipe for success, as giving teams opportunities to cash in with the extra man can burn you. It has certainly burned the Bruins and has played a part in some of their losses to begin the season. In their most-recent game against the Toronto Maple Leafs it was the difference maker. The Bruins have the most penalty minutes, but they have done a poor job of killing penalties.
Whether it is a good call or bad call, you need to kill the penalty. Teams have feasted on their opportunities and it’s hurt the club. The Bruins as a penalty-kill unit have allowed the fourth-most shot attempts, which has translated to the fourth-most shots on goal. Teams are getting a high quantity of chances and also high quality ones. The Bruins have given up the fourth-most high-danger attempts AND 20 high-danger shots. This sounds bad, right? Well, it gets worse.
The Bruins have given up the most goals while on the penalty kill (15). Teams are making them pay for their sins and they have yet to stop the bleeding. If the Bruins are going to get into penalty trouble, they have to do a better job killing the penalties.
How the Bruins’ Penalty Kill Can Improve
The Bruins’ defensive system has changed under assistant coach Joe Sacco, who also runs the penalty kill. The Bruins have often been lost in coverage and teams are able to settle in and find open space to create chances. It has been that way on the penalty kill as well. There is no denying the penalty kill needs to improve, as it ranks 20th in the league with a 76.2% success rate. So, how can it improve?
The obvious one is to stop taking penalties. You cannot get scored on while down a man if you stay out of the box. However, there are ways the Bruins can improve so teams are not having as much success against them.
When it comes to the chances the Bruins are giving up, teams are able to fire shots from the blue line with no issues getting them through. Those chances help create rebounds, which lead to more high-danger chances. Even though they’ve done a good job of limiting chances closer to the crease, they are still giving up the middle of the slot. The biggest thing the team can do is start blocking shots and getting into shooting lanes.
In the game against the Maple Leafs, Morgan Rielly had an easy time getting shots through from the blue line, and the Leafs scored two goals from there. Defenseman Brandon Carlo touched on this issue and talked about what the unit could do.
“I think we were allowing them to get in the zone too easily… those shots from the point, we just gotta get in front of them, front those,” he said.
The Bruins have bigger bodies and should utilize their big frames to their advantage. Getting into shooting lanes and challenging the opposition goes a long way. Being more disciplined comes with time, but the units need to be better if they are going to get into trouble.
Bruins Need to Improve the Penalty Kill
Teams are feasting on the power-play opportunities the Bruins are giving them. The units need to clog up the shooting lanes to give up fewer quality chances when down a man and the team has to find a way to stay out of the box. The penalty trouble has cost the team games and has to improve going forward.
