Bruins not a pretty picture right now

When the Bruins are on their game, they are a sight to behold. The passes are perfect, the stickhandling is dizzying and the decision-making is flawless.

The Bruins are most definitely not on their game.

The B’s dropped their first round-robin game on Sunday to the Philadelphia Flyers, 4-1, and they did not look good doing it. They forced the extra pass, they fanned on shots and, with the exception of Chris Wagner’s grimy goal late in the second period, they never stopped chasing the pretty play.

A couple of times in his post-game press conference, coach Bruce Cassidy tried to calmly analyze the things that concerned him until he bluntly simplified it all.

“I’m thinking we better make a better friggin’ play with the puck, is what I’m thinking.” said Cassidy. “We need to make better plays on the puck, be stronger on it, take care of it, more urgency. You can use any adjective you want. That to me was the difference.”

It’s not helping the Black-and-Gold cause that their top line, which is also one of the best lines in hockey, is not in sync. Brad Marchand, who has he ability to turn defenders inside out with his puck-handling skills, has been fighting the puck. David Pastrnak, who missed all of Phase 3, is full of energy and moving well but is not getting the puck in good scoring spaces. And after Philly goalie Carter Hart swallowed up a late chance, the frustration on Patrice Bergeron’s face was quite visible as he shook his head in disgust.

That trio can play tic-tac-toe as well as any line in the league, but they might need to readjust their ambition, at least for the time being.

“I think they should keep it simple until they find their game. That’s kind of the message,” said Cassidy. “I know you’re creative. You’re one of the best lines in the National Hockey League for a reason. So I can’t sit there and tell them they have to make this play in this situation. I’d just like to see the whole team have a shot mentality. They weren’t the only ones. Torey (Krug) turned down a one-timer from the slot in the second period. Charlie McAvoy, again. Jack (Studnicka) had a 3-on-2 from the slot and chose to pass and (David Krejci) chose to pass from there. It wasn’t just our top line, I think it was a bit of a team-wide problem. I saw a bit of it against Columbus. We’ll probably see a little more of it Wednesday (against Tampa), but we’ve got to get it out of our system where we get a good look at the net and take that shot. I’ve always felt that once that starts happening, the plays that are there will open up because we’ve got good players. That’s how we’re approaching it.”

Their power-play, second best in the league when play was halted in March, sputtered. Anders Bjork drew penalties when it was still a game, but the B’s could not mount a sustained attack.

Part of the issue was that the ice was unsurprisingly poor. Pucks were bouncing all over the place. That will happen in August. But the conditions were the same for the Flyers. And those conditions will most likely be the same when the playoffs begin for the B’s in about 10 days. They have to learn to deal with it.

Krug said that the time to make the pretty plays may be in the first five to 10 minutes of each period. After that, it’s more about will than skill.

“I just think we need to change up our mentality a bit, try to get away from those pretty plays. Make one pass, put it on net and recover pucks, then all those seams and the plays that you speak of will be there,” said Krug. “It’s obvious things are bouncing out there. We just need to change the way we approach things and hopefully it works out for us.”

This loss is not the end of the world, nor would the apocalypse occur if they lose to both the Lightning and Capitals in the last two round-robin games. They are already in the playoffs.

But the Bruins do not want to arrive at the playoffs in the same mental state they were in after Sunday’s opener.

“It’s no secret we have the luxury to use these three games to build our game,” said Krug. “We have to start at the bottom in the D-zone and work out from there. Until you reach that perfect game, you’re always striving for it. Right now, we have to change some things. We have to get a little bit greasier, raise our compete level and manage the time and score. It’s playoff hockey. Even though it doesn’t start for us in this series…we’ve got to start building our game the right way. If we don’t we’re going to be showing up to the Game One of the first series not feeling comfortable. We have some things to pick up, to fix it, and you can count on this group to do that.”

Yes, these players, with this leadership corps, can be trusted to put in the requisite work. But none of them have been in this situation before, trying to reignite their game after five months off. There are no guarantees.

The loss to Columbus in the exhibition game was easily brushed off. This one? Not so much.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3k7XE0b