By: Tom Calautti | Follow me on Twitter @TCalauttis
We’re officially through the first ten games of the 2024-25 NHL season, and things haven’t gone the way the Boston Bruins had hoped. The team is an abysmal 4-5-1 and currently occupies the bottom spot in the Atlantic Division. There are only six teams with fewer points than the Black and Gold, and although it’s early, it’s clear things need to change.
When things aren’t going right for a team with a roster as solid as Boston’s, many issues usually cause the funk. But I think it’s become abundantly clear to the team and fans alike that their biggest stumbling block is their offense.
Ten games into the season, the Bruins currently rank 24th in the NHL with only 15 five-on-five goals. When you look at the team’s advanced offensive stats, Boston is 23rd in shot attempts, 27th in unblocked shot attempts, 26th in expected goals, and 29th in expected goals per 60. To make these analytics crystal clear, their offense is floundering.
The powerplay, which should usually be an area of energy, has been a major detriment to this team’s momentum. Boston’s man-advantage unit is clicking at an abysmal 14.3 percent (25th in the league). When you factor in goals scored on the powerplay and all other situations, Boston is tied for 22nd in the league with 27 goals scored (in TEN games). The offense hasn’t been good enough, and the players and head coach attribute it to a lack of confidence.
“Yeah, and of course, when you don’t get the pucks going in, it gets frustrating to see the guys holding the sticks a little tighter than we used to,” said Hampus Lindholm following Tuesday night’s loss to the Philadelphia Flyers. “(It’s on us) to try to find ways to fight through them. We know which ways to do it, and we used to have to keep humming at it and also take ownership to be better out there.”
It’s not difficult to see that some players are struggling to overcome their current slumps. The team’s middle-six skaters, including Brad Marchand, Charlie Coyle, Trent Frederic, Morgan Geekie, Justin Brazeau, and Matt Poitras, have combined for just five goals and 17 points this season. Their top line (Lindholm, Zacha, and Pastrnak), which has been only marginally better, has only nine goals and 16 points in their first ten.
Head Coach Jim Montgomery directly referenced his team’s confidence in last night’s postgame presser. He talked about how tangible the struggles are, saying, “Some guys are still fighting it as far as their confidence and their ability to just be smooth with the puck on the outside.”
The term snake-bitten is often thrown around when a team struggles to put the puck in the net, but the interesting twist to Boston’s current conundrum is that not everyone is having difficulty scoring. Even after last night’s loss, Boston still has the seventh-best forward trio (according to expected goals percentage) in the league in Johnny Beecher, Mark Kastelic, and Cole Koepke.
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The fourth line has played great all season, and they just might have the key to unlocking the rest of the team’s offense: they play a simple game. The trio plays with pace, forechecks hard, crashes the goal, and isn’t afraid to get to the dirty areas. Anyone who’s watched the team this season will tell you that. They chip pucks behind opposing defensemen, wear them down in pursuit, and put anything and everything they have into getting pucks on the net.
Right now, that line has the second-most five-on-five goals of any team in the NHL, with nine. The best part about that stat is that there isn’t a lot of flair or finesse to their game. They simply use their speed and strength to win battles, utilize their defensemen, capitalize on the turnovers they force, and bludgeon their way to the net.
That mentality and play style could be helpful to Beecher, Kastelic, and Koepke’s teammates, who’ve struggled to generate high-danger chances. Perhaps the key to getting the top nine’s confidence back is playing a more simple game.
“I think we need to simplify a little bit, let the pucks do the work, and put pucks to the net, good things usually happen, and then go to hard areas,” said Lindholm. This game comes much easier when you just play on your intuition out there, and I think we can go back to that…you’re going to have to work for it, get that mindset on everyone in here, and do it as a team, that’s how we get out of (this slump).”
It’s time for the Black and Gold to return to the fundamental pillars of hockey: hard on the forecheck, playing a north-south style game, and getting pucks and bodies to the net. The Boston Bruins are at their best when they play a simple, straightforward game. That’s not a revelation; it’s a reality. Let’s see if the team can simplify its game and break out of its current rut before this season spirals out of control.
I think it is time to panic. This is the worst I remember the Bruins playing in quite some time. It seems like there is no cohesiveness to the team. They really can’t get anything going. No one looks good.