Bruins need more help from rest of lineup

So here the Bruins stand at the exact halfway point in their regular season. They own a nine-point lead over the second-place Toronto Maple Leafs in the Atlantic Division, the biggest advantage of any of the four division leaders, and they trail only the NHL-leading Washington Capitals — by a single point.

And despite what could have been crippling injuries recently, they are riding an eight-game point streak. Their plus-33 is the best goal differential in the league.

Life should be good, right? Well, not so fast. The B’s are bona fide Stanley Cup contenders and, as such, they have high expectations to meet. And forgive us, but this team’s incomplete state is becoming more pronounced. The current injuries are contributing to their issues right now, of course, but even when healthy they’re not getting enough help from some of their support players. It’s not to the point of panic, but it is something to keep an eye on.

In the B’s shootout loss to the Devils on New Year’s Eve in Newark, coach Bruce Cassidy was looking to send a message to middle six-forward Danton Heinen by scratching him for his backsliding play of late, which was fine. He’d been slumping. What wasn’t fine was the lack of anyone else in the middle-six seizing the opportunity. And they needed someone to step up in the absence of David Krejci. Brett Ritchie, Par Lindholm, Jake DeBrusk and Anders Bjork all failing to land a shot on net. David Backes put a couple on net, but he couldn’t seem to get his motor going in just 7:57 of ice time.

The B’s threw 30 shots on net and nearly half of them (14) were generated by the top line of David Pastrnak, Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron. Eight more came from the defensemen.

As they stand right now, the B’s have two settled lines, it appears. They are the Bergeron line and the so-called fourth line of Sean Kuraly, Chris Wagner and Joakim Nordstrom, though that line is really more valuable than a typical fourth line as it often sees matchups against top lines.

The middle of the lineup, meanwhile, is muddled. Heinen has just six goals in 40 games. Bjork has six in 33. Ritchie, brought in with the hopes that his one 16-goal season in Dallas was not an aberration, has two in 23 games, the last one on Oct. 22. The DeBrusk-Krejci pairing on the second line has proven to be productive and there should be no rush to break that up, but it’s still a little concerning that DeBrusk followed up his two-goal effort against the Sabres after being benched with zero shots on goal in Jersey.

Could new blood from Providence help? Zach Senyshyn, knocked out of the lineup for a month with an untimely knee injury, has three games under his belt in Providence. He hasn’t scored in those games, a trend that continues to be perplexing, but he looked, at the very least, intriguing in his handful of games in Boston. It’s clear that management is wary of rushing Jack Studnicka, and that’s understandable, but he might be worth another look.

Whether it comes from the current roster, the farm or elsewhere, this team appears to be in need of a boost despite the lofty position it holds at the halfway point.

Is that assessment harsh? Maybe. But the weight that the top line is carrying is not good for the team’s hopes for another long playoff run.

Here are a couple more thoughts as the stretched-thin B’s were given the day off on Wednesday:

• We tend here not to pay too much attention to the B’s long-standing troubles with the shootout. The skills competition disappears in the playoffs. But it’s now six points that have been squandered (0-6). That’s a lot. The B’s were close on Tuesday. Marchand hit the post on a nice move and Bergeron was thwarted on a great save by Mackenzie Blackwood. But it is getting frustrating. “I guess it is (part of the game) where you’re letting big points slip by,” said Bergeron. “We’ve got to rectify that. Obviously you don’t want to put yourself in that position when you’re up by a goal in the third. We’re better than as far as closing games and being smart and staying on our toes and sticking to our system. But if you’re in that position, you’ve got to bear down to get that extra point.”
• What we’re even less bothered by than the shootout is the All-Star game. The contrivances of the league’s annual money grab always lead to snubs, but Marchand is tied for third in the league in scoring. He’s now scored at least 20 goals in nine of 10 of full NHL season. If someone like Marchand is not at the All-Star game, then the so-called honor of being named a participant has ceased to have any meaning.
• The Bruins have displayed a maddening penchant for playing down to the competition with losses to Detroit, Ottawa and now New Jersey. And on Thursday they welcome another non-playoff team in the Columbus Blue Jackets to town. But the Jackets are one of the hottest teams in the league right now, riding an 11-game point streak that has them five points out of a playoff spot.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2ZFkwdO