While this may come off as a slight to Washington's Braden Holtby, the 22-year-old goaltender put together what had to have been the least impressive 44-save victory I've seen in quite some time.

Stonewalling a Boston attack headlined by 31 shots in the final 40 minutes of play en route to a series-tying victory, the ever so deceiving box score lied to you. It wasn't Holtby's dominance of the crease that stole Game 4 for the Caps, but rather Boston's absurdly ineffective offensive attack.

A scary trend in the series as it shifts back to the Hub later today, the shots from the Black-and-Gold were best categorized as weak-wristed wristers or softly-packed punches to the Caps emblem on Holtby's chest. In other words, outside of a Rich Peverley shot that trickled through Holtby's five-hole in the first period, they were collectively the worst 45 shots you could see a team put on net.

Something that's prompted the Bruins to make swift changes for today's pivotal Game 5 match-up at the TD Garden.

"That’s a part of trying to find solutions and it’s as simple as that," B's coach Claude Julien said yesterday when asked about mixing up his lines. "You’ve got to mix up guys who are not getting the results that we’d like to. So, you’re trying to make changes that will maybe spark that part of our game."

In line-shifting headlined by Brad Marchand's demotion down to the fourth line with Gregory Campbell and Shawn Thornton, the 23-year-old Marchand epitomizes everything that's gone wrong for the Bruins' top-six. One of four Boston top-six forwards without a point in the playoffs -- David Krejci, Milan Lucic, and Tyler Seguin being the other three -- the move down the depth chart comes in an effort to get the club back to the basics.

"That’s what I got to do," Marchand told the media after practice on Friday when asked if the bump would simplify his game. "[I have to] get back to just competing and working hard and the rest of the game will come."

As the shake-up also comes with a demotion down to the third line for the 20-year-old Seguin, bumping Bruins leading-scorer Brian Rolston up to the Krejci line, Julien doesn't want his club panicking over a tied series. "We’re a confident group," Julien remarked, adding, "We’ve been through challenges, adversity before and we’re ready to face this one as well."

But no matter what 'adversity' spin you want to put on the offensive woes of the club, the Bruins are a team that could very well find themselves in dangerous territory if their rut continues.

While this is pointing out the obvious to a criminal degree, the Bruins simply need more from their top-six performers, who have just one (!) point in four games this series. A loss tonight and you're turning around for a Sunday showing in Washington with your playoff hopes in the balance.

Yikes.

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