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The Boston Bruins are set to embark on a tough, five-game, nine-day road swing with stops in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, St. Louis, and finally, at the Madhouse on Madison down in Chicago. Given their frustrating start to February -- the Bruins have dropped three of four, and have scored just eight goals over that stretch -- and the Florida Panthers throwing themselves back into the mix (they trail the Bruins by just four points for the second wild card with two games in hand), a successful road swing is an absolute must.
But what exactly constitutes a successful road trip? Three wins in five? Seven of a possible points? Statistically, yes, but the Black and Gold will need to be a bit more convincing than two points.
Here are your five for the road...
Stop falling behind
The Bruins’ trend in February (and towards the end of January for that matter)? Allowing the first goal.
The B’s have allowed the first goal in four-straight games (1-3-0) and have done so in eight of their last nine contests (3-4-1). Allowing the first goal hasn’t typically been the end of the world for the Bruins in 2014-15 (their .367 winning percentage when trailing first is the 12th-best in the league), but doing it on the road, when matchups don’t favor you nor do you have 17,565 cheering you on, is a different animal entirely.
Four of their five opponents are in the top-half of the league when they have the lead first, too. (The perennially pitiful Edmonton Oilers are the exception to this stat, to the shock of literally nobody.) St. Louis has won 25-of-30 when scoring first, while the Blackhawks have taken 23-of-32. The Flames are 18-5-2 when leading first, and Vancouver’s won 20-of-26 when scoring first. Those are brutal figures to go against.
In essence, the Bruins cannot continue to stumble with their energy/footing/skating for a period plus.
Figure out your top-nine
It seems like B’s coach Claude Julien has tried just about everything he can to get the Black and Gold going. And he’s in a difficult position here, too. It seems that the Bruins have the makings of a solid top-nine -- it won’t light the world on fire, but it should be enough -- but has struggled to find the ideal combinations.
The three givens are the one-two punches; You know Milan Lucic will skate with David Krejci. You know Patrice Bergeron will center Brad Marchand. And you know that Loui Eriksson is the preferred right-winger for third-line Carl Soderberg.
That puts Reilly Smith, David Pastrnak, Chris Kelly, and maybe Danny Paille as the plug-in options across the board. Kelly seems to have a home as the left-wing/center of that third-line, Pastrnak belongs on that top-line in the now, while Smith (two goals in the last 23 games) has found himself demoted down to the fourth-line in place of Paille more than he’d like to admit.
But Paille, going through goal-scoring struggles of his own (the guy cannot buy a goal right now despite his chances), is not the answer, really prompting Julien to find a way to get the 23-year-old Smith going.
They haven’t really tried it yet, but I’d be curious to see if the Bruins try to hide Pastrnak’s ‘defensive deficiencies’ with the Bergeron line for a road game or two here, and move Smith up to that top-line to see if he can find a spark (it’s probably where he’s looked best in an incredibly frustrating season).
Find a way to get Svedberg back into mix
In January, Boston backup Niklas Svedberg played just 60 minutes. 13 days into February, and the 25-year-old has played 20. That’s simply not enough for a Boston squad that needs a rested and refreshed Tuukka Rask in April if they’re going to go anywhere this postseason.
But there wasn’t much Julien could do when Svedberg allowed three goals on just 10 first-period shots against Dallas in his first NHL appearance in over a month this past Tuesday.
“Hopefully we’ll put him in a position next time with a little bit more support,… Julien said of getting Svedberg back into an NHL rhythm after his conditioning stint with Providence. “You know, when we played well we had good layers. We didn’t give up much. Tonight certainly wasn’t the case. We gave up a lot.…
Realistically, the Bruins could give Svedberg the Edmonton game, but again, that’d give him just one 60-minute game in a month and a half. Ideally, the Bruins could use a two-game trip from the Swedish backup, but that seems 100% based on Rask’s performance and where the B’s are in the standings.
(Read as: They can’t take Rask out of the crease if he’s posting .920-.930s every night and winning games.)
Tinker with the power play
The Bruins were a trainwreck on the power play in their last game, finishing the night 0-for-3. In that 0-for-3 figure was a five-minute major power play, a double-minor, and a third-period man advantage that could have tied the game up at 4-4. They went against a Dallas penalty kill that entered play with a 78.8% success rate on the penalty kill, too. They also allowed two shorthanded goals, their first two against of the season.
So, hey, maybe trainwreck is an understatement here.
“Bottom line we’ve got to do our job on the power play,… Patrice Bergeron, the ‘shooter’ on the B’s second power play unit, said. “We didn’t and yeah, it was obviously not good enough.…
Julien tried tweaking the B’s man advantage a bit, removing Lucic from the top unit, and replacing him Brad Marchand, but that switch brought little relief to the club, either.
Given how well the ‘second’ unit -- with Eriksson, Soderberg, and Bergeron up front and Smith and Dougie Hamilton on the point -- moves the puck, that should seemingly remain untouched.
But on the first unit, it might be time to consider putting Chara’s bomb back at the point, even for a game or two, to see if he can fire his power play success back up to the level that the Black and Gold need it to be at.
Scout, scout, scout
There’s been a lot of chatter about the Bruins’ alleged interest in Canuck forward Zack Kassian. They could take a deeper look at Edmonton defenseman Jeff Petry. They’ve had reported interest in the Blues’ Patrik Berglund. With 17 days ‘til the NHL Trade Deadline, this will be the best look the Black and Gold front office gets at these players (and maybe some they haven’t been as open-mouthed about.)
It also allows Peter Chiarelli to see where his own team is at, especially against stiff competition like a Vancouver, St. Louis, and Chicago, and analyze where their most pressing needs are at.
I still think this team needs another top-four defenseman -- especially one that can make a strong first pass, move the puck well, and handle aggressive forechecks -- way more than it needs another top-nine forward.
Ty Anderson has been covering the Boston Bruins for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, is a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter, and can be contacted on Twitter, or emailed at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com