Felger: The Bruins haven’t missed Bergeron and Krejci offensively

Heading into the 2023-24 season there were some concerns on how the Boston Bruins would look offensively after the retirements of centers Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci. As the regular season gets closer to wrapping up, Felger looks at the stats of Charlie Coyle and Pavel Zacha, and talks about how they've filled the holes in the offense nicely.

Do the Bruins not miss Bergeron and Krejci on offense? 

Felger: (Coyle's) had a career year.

Mazz: He has. He's had a really good year.

Felger: He's 32 years old and last night set a career high for goals. In fact, I'm sorry he set it two goals ago. But last night he tied a career high in points and he has already set a career high in goals. Did I mention he was 32? So at 32 years old, he hadn't scored more than 20 goals since 2016, eight years ago. Again for the wild. And again the 56 points that he has ties a career high that he had in 2016-17. So his next point is a career high. It's all a long way of saying, Krejci moves on, Bergeron moves on, they don't really do much to fill the top of the depth chart at center, and everyone goes "they're porked". And I remember saying at the time, I said, "I don't know, I don't think so . Coyle and Zacha are not quite Bergeron and Krejci, but they're okay if we give them more opportunities. I think you're okay there". And it turns out offensively you've been okay there. Again charlie Coyle on the season 24 goals-32 assists-56 points. Zacha has 53 points. He's on pace for a career year himself. So between them, Coyle and Zacha have 109 points. Last year, for the entire year, Bergeron and Krejci had 114 points. So you got a Coyle and Zacha are going to surpass the offensive output of Bergeron and Krejci. Who could have predicted that one?

Felger: I've always thought Coyle should be a better offensive player, but they needed him to be this year and he was. They needed Coyle and Zacha to have career years and they have. And so if you want to say "score one for Sweeney there" I don't know.

Mazz: That trade, that was Ryan Donato, right? That was a great trade.

Felger: Tremendous trade. Where they obviously miss Bergeron, Coyle is a minus-one plus/minus and he's got a 51.3 face-off percentage. Patrice Bergeron had 58 points last year, so Coyle is going to score more than Bergeron did last year, Bergeron was plus-35 and his face-off percentage was 61.1. That's where they miss him. So they miss Bergeron defensively more than offensively. The power plays gone down, and I think that's probably partly Bergeron too, but "net net", you know you flush it all out, they have not missed Bergeron and Krejci offensively.

Listen to Felger and Mazz from 2-6 every Monday-Friday on 98.5 The Sports Hub, with hosts Mike Felger, Tony “Mazz” Massarotti, and Jim Murray “Big Jim”. You can listen live in the Sports Hub App and subscribe to their podcasts here. Follow @FelgerAndMazz on Twitter to keep up with the show!

As one would expect in a matchup between Juuse Saros and Linus Ullmark, goals were indeed at a premium in Tuesday's showdown between the Bruins and Predators at Nashville's Bridgestone Arena.

But it was also a damn-near throwback to the NHL of yesteryear — and I'm talking long before the Predators were even a twinkle in the NHL's eye — as the Bruins and Predators nearly went three full periods without a goal on the board.

It was the kind of tight-checking, zero-room-out-there game that Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery has consistently warned their club about becoming the new norm down the stretch and into the postseason. And for the Bruins, it was less than 12 minutes away from being the team's first 0-0 game in nearly 15 years.

Yet, powered by three goals in the final 6:42 of regulation, the Bruins did what they had to ensure themselves of a victory, and escaped Nashville with two points.

With the victory over the Preds, and with Florida's loss to the Canadiens, the Bruins have now moved four points ahead of the Panthers for first place in the Atlantic Division. That's a potentially huge move, but could really come back to what happens for the rest of the week, as the Bruins will play the Hurricanes on Thursday while the Panthers play Ottawa ahead of a Saturday showdown between the Bruins and Panthers at TD Garden.

Given the fact that the Panthers hold all the notable tiebreakers over the Bruins, the Bruins will by all means have to finish the season with more points than the Panthers to win the Atlantic Division.

Here are the 98.5 The Sports Hub (dot com) 3 Stars from a victory over the Preds...

In what could be absolutely devastating news for narratives and lazy talking points, Bruins superstar David Pastrnak has put some forth some absolutely incredible 200-foot work of late.

And Tuesday was just the latest step forward in that respect, as Pastrnak did the dirty work to help create Boston's second goal and then stuck the dagger further into Nashville's chest with the empty-net goal to give Boston a 3-0 victory.

In addition to the on-ice results, the Bruins held a 10-5 on-ice edge in shots on goal with No. 88 out on the ice at five-on-five play, but were outshot 22-15 with Pastrnak on the bench.

As we've discussed before, Pastrnak has really taken his game to another level since Jim Montgomery called out his team ahead of their flight to Florida. Always a great sign when your superstars (who have carried their weight all year) hear your message, respond, and follow that direction.

Just like timely saves, timely goals matter just a bit more this time of year, and there's no denying that Charlie Coyle scored one hell of a timely goal, as it was Coyle who broke through for the game's first goal with a shorthanded strike.

And on a night where Coyle lost 12 of his 20 battles at the dot, it was his defensive-zone faceoff game that remained strong, with wins in six of his 12 defensive-zone draws. Again, that matters.

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Just an absolutely absurd game from Linus Ullmark.

On the board with his second shutout of the season, Ullmark was by far the B's best player in the winning effort, and had to be exactly that from start to finish in this one.

The 31-save shutout put an end to what was a two-game losing streak for Ullmark, but continued what's been a strong post-deadline run, with four wins and a .950 save percentage in six outings since he reportedly refused to waive his no-trade clause to facilitate a trade out of Boston.