June 4, 2011
The Blue Line
Fixing Boston's Power Play

by Matthew Coller

Displaying pretext

The running joke about the Boston Bruins is: "as long as the Canucks stay out of the penalty box, the Bruins can win." Boston's power play is so pathetic they've only scored on 7.5% of man-advantages during 19 playoff games, good for five goals in 67 chances including one lonely goal in 32 chances on the road. Their failure to produce isn't a complete anomaly as the Bruins ranked 20th in the NHL this year on the power play, but at this point, Boston coach Claude Julien would take the 16.1% his team put up in the regular season. Without at least that rate, they're unlikely to beat the Vancouver Canucks. So how can the Boston Bruins fix their power play?

For starters, the Bruins could improve their chances of finding the back of the net on the man-advantage by making changes around the quarterback of the unit Tomas Kaberle. The long-time Leafs defenseman was once known as one of the league's elite special teamers. In 2005-06, he posted 45 power play assists. This season, that number was 25 in 82 games and for the first time since 2003-04, Kaberle didn't score a goal. During the playoffs, the defenseman has just three assists in 72 minutes.

Two of those PP assists came in one game against Tampa Bay. So in 19 games, 17 of them went without a special teams point by Kaberle. It seems logical he didn't completely lose his PP prowess, rather that chances aren't being finished. Forward Mark Recchi hasn't managed a single special teams point in 49 minutes on the power play. David Krejci, who has played 61 minutes, has just one goal and two assists after managing just one power play goal all season. Boston's failure is becoming laughable, and coach Julien did not make significant changes in Game 1.

Recchi played 3:34 and Krejci was on the ice during the power play for more than four minutes. Maybe sticking out more than who played a great deal of minutes is who did not get much ice time. We're talking about Tyler Seguin. The rookie only played 1:20 during the power play in Game 1. Of course, Seguin didn't see much of the special teams during the regular season, scoring only one goal. But he was prolific in the OHL with the man advantage, scoring 21 goals in two seasons with the Plymouth Whalers. And, when he's been given even-strength time filling in more-than-admirably for Patrice Bergeron, he netted six points in eight games, scoring on 18.8% of shots.