Bruce Cassidy comments on an upward trend in the NHL this season
Boston Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy started his post-practice media coverage discussing the hole on the second line without David Pastrnak and which depth player best fills that role.
Pastrnak is still injured and will be missing his ninth straight game tonight in Pittsburgh against the Penguins. The Bruins are 4-4-0 without their top scorer in the lineup, but what has hurt the most is their powerplay, which is in a 0 for 27 slump since Pastrnak's injury. Some of the options Cassidy has mainly used are Marc McLaughlin and Curtis Lazar.
Cassidy was asked about the increase in goal scoring across the NHL this season and what he thinks the main factors are:
"Guys are more skilled would be my guess; that can work both ways, though ... I think it's more just the style of play, there's more of an emphasis on four or five-man attacks [and] more offensive defensemen throughout the lineup ... Powerplay numbers are up, used to be 20% was very good, now it's average at best ... Most young guys coming up that end up playing in the league shoot the puck better than they ever have."
This season's goals per game in the NHL are at 3.13, which is 0.18 higher than last season, and the highest it's been since 1995-96 when it was at 3.14. Cassidy has some great theories on why scoring is higher and discusses how it will affect the upcoming playoffs and if it will stay the way it is or go down like it tends to do in the postseason.
Find out what else Cassidy discussed in his post-practise presser here:
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