BOSTON — Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery summed up the Bruins offense, but only because he’s already exhausted the other cliches.
“Yeah, it’s not good enough.”
Montgomery is running out of ways to describe the offensive woes of the Boston Bruins, who suffered a 2-0 shutout loss at the hands of the not-so-explosive-themselves Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday night at TD Garden. Their shots on goal declined with each successive period (11, 9, 3) and they failed to cash in on four power play opportunities, as they seemed slowly drain of any juice they had in the tank in the first place.
Boston lost despite out-shooting Philly 23-19, but the shots on goal don’t tell the whole story. The total shot attempts were 72-47 Bruins, but unblocked attempts shrunk the margin to 39-34, and high-danger chances were merely 12-10. The Flyers packed it in and blocked a whopping 28 shot attempts in the game, the most against the Bruins since Dec. 9, 2019 (h/t Ty Anderson). And of course, the Flyers were the only team on Garden ice Tuesday night to finish a chance off a hard forecheck along the boards on Tyson Foerster’s second-period goal.
When the other team is getting in the way of shots, it has a way of ironically wearing down the shooting team, whether physically or mentally. And when you start to overthink things, hold the puck a little longer, wait a few more seconds for a perfect pass, you tend to fall right into the blocking team’s trap. The struggle to get the puck to the danger area was especially evident when the Bruins had the man advantage, and even a 5-on-3.
MORE: Bruins get shutout for second time this season
“If you move the puck quick enough and you’re thinking shot-first, they’re not gonna be in shot lanes,” Montgomery said. “They’re one less player, especially 5-on-3, they’re two less players.”
Poitras’ Eventful Night
Brian Fluharty-Imagn ImagesOct 29, 2024; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Bruins center Matthew Poitras (51) fights Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Emil Andrae (36) during the third period at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Brian Fluharty-Imagn Images
Bruins forward Matthew Poitras had about as interesting a game as you can expect for a kid who was a minus-1 with no shots on goal. He took a hard open-ice hit from the Flyers’ Joel Farabee in the first period, a clear interference penalty that wasn’t called, but didn’t have to exit the game despite being clearly shaken up.
Later, in the third period, Poitras got into some theatrics with the Flyers’ Emil Andrae. Poitras engaged with Andrae and toppled him to the ice, which is a fairly standard play when two guys are jousting along the boards. But what was out of the ordinary was Andrae throwing a gloved punch right in Poitras’ face. Poitras responded by continuing to shove and hold Andrae down on the ice, and both eventually went to the box for matching roughing penalties.
“I was just trying to battle for the puck and we both grabbed each other, a little skirmish trying to play the puck, and obviously I didn’t like the sucker punch,” Poitras said after the game.
Ultimately, the Bruins are better off with the 20-year-old Poitras on the ice rather than off it, and not getting punched or being drawn into unnecessary physical battles. But it was nice for the B’s to see Poitras’ competitive fire come out in that moment.
Power Play Woes Continue
Brian Fluharty-Imagn ImagesOct 29, 2024; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Bruins center Charlie Coyle (13) skates with the puck against Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Travis Sanheim (6) during the first period at TD Garden. (Brian Fluharty-Imagn Images)
On the aforementioned power play … the Bruins made five total shot attempts in four power plays, and none of them actually made it on goal (via Natural Stat Trick). They were out-shot 1-0 on the power play. Can’t have it!
Their problems on the man advantage are an extension and an amplification of their overall offensive struggles. It’s obvious at this point that they need to change their approach, because the talent on the roster isn’t going to change much,.
“PKs are good now, so, they do a good job too,” said Brad Marchand. “But, we might need to try to throw some different looks at teams and try some different things. But, we’ll look at that tomorrow.”
