Boston Bruins
Bruins Suddenly Powerless As They Slide Into Break
The Boston Bruins have been powerless in their last three games and it’s no coincidence they find themselves mired in their first official slump of their 2022-23 regular season.
The Bruins embarked on their current five-game road trip having not lost two games in a row all season. They also left Boston with the best powerplay in the NHL. After going 1-for-3 on the powerplay in a 4-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens to kick the road trip off last Tuesday, the Boston Bruins have gone 0-for-12 over their last three games, and not so surprisingly lost each game. As they now look ahead to closing out their road trip against the Maple Leafs on Wednesday in Toronto, the Bruins now find themselves ranked sixth on the man advantage, scoring at a 25.3 percent clip.
“It’s being on the same page, first and foremost,” Boston Bruins captain Patrice Bergeron said after watching his team go a whopping 0-for-6 on the powerplay in the 4-1 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday night. “I think a lot of it tonight we kind of got away from it, being in sync and being on the same page. Again, they’re a very aggressive kill. Same thing with Florida last game.
We saw that we have to adjust to it and find ways to react to make quick plays and the puck needs to be off your stick in a split second. We all need to be ready for it. We’ll look at it. Obviously, a lot of things that we can improve on, of course. It was sluggish, could’ve been a difference make tonight. We’ve got to be better as a unit.”
The Boston Bruins powerplay did everything but play as a unit on Sunday, and Bergeron thinks maybe it’s time to learn from the record-breaking tear they’ve been on until the last three games.
“You can rely on what we’ve done to help ourselves and realize what we want to accomplish and how we want to play,” Bergeron said. “I think it’s subtle. There’s details here and there and fatigue at times. We’re not getting in the areas that we should be getting at and we need to help ourselves.”