Bruins Have Potentially Discovered a New Top Power-Play Unit
Published April 2, 2023 at 2:58 PM
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If one thing has been a weak spot for the Boston Bruins this season, it's been the team's lack of success on the power play, but a new unit showed some positives.
Since January 1st, the Bruins man advantage has only converted 22 times out of 131 opportunities, and rank seventh worst in the league in that span with a 16.3% success rate. While their 131 power plays are the fifth most in the league in that time.Much Needed Power Play Success in Pittsburgh
Boston's top unit went 2 for 3 on the power play, and surprisingly, it didn't include veteran's Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand. As Scott McLaughlin of WEEI shared after the Bruins 4-3 win, head coach Jim Montgomery may have found a new top unit:
''The first goal came from the same unit that had also scored the Bruins' previous two power-play goals, and it's one that coach Jim Montgomery has started to use more over the last week: Charlie McAvoy at the point, Tyler Bertuzzi at the net-front, Pavel Zacha in the middle bumper, and Pastrnak and David Krejci on the wings''
Pastrnak and McAvoy led the way with one goal each on the man advantage, while Zacha and Bertuzzi each had one assist. What has made the biggest difference for Montgomery, was putting the ''Czech Trio'' of Pasta, Zacha and Krejci together.
Another factor for the Bruins is keeping their best offensive weapon in Pastrnak on the ice the whole time:
''During power-play practice, coach Jim Montgomery rotated Pastrnak and Orlov between the «first» and «second» units. Afterwards, he explained that he did so because they wanted Pastrnak to start every power play, regardless of whether it was the first or second unit starting.''
On Sunday afternoon, Boston managed to score once in their two power play opportunities against the Blues, too. Bertuzzi netted his seventh goal of the season, with assists from Pastrnak and Lindholm.
The real question is whether Montgomery and his staff will keep this unit together, even with captain Bergeron back in the lineup.
Check out McLaughlin's full article in the link below:
NHL players in this story
Brad Marchand
Tyler Bertuzzi
Charlie McAvoy
Pavel Zacha
| POLL | ||
April 2 | 116 answers Bruins Have Potentially Discovered a New Top Power-Play Unit Should the Bruins keep this PP unit together? | ||
| Yes | 92 | 79.3 % |
| No | 24 | 20.7 % |
| LIST OF POLL | ||
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