[ad_1]
The Bruins are likely to be shorthanded when they take part in the ice for the fifth game of the Stanley Cup final Thursday.
Matt Grzelcyk could be released from the concussion protocol, but he might not do it. Zdeno Chara could shock the world and play a final match with his mouth stitched, but that's unlikely.
The fact is that the Bruins have been shorthanded on defense since Kevan Miller was injured in the regular season. Anyway, they came so far.
The Bruins proved that they could win with a reinforced defense corps, even beating those big bad St. Louis Blues in match 3 of this series without Grzelcyk. They went 10-7-2 without Chara in the regular season, while they also missed at least four other regular defensemen. They won the fourth game of the Eastern Conference final without Chara.
No matter who is dressed in defense, the only cure for the Bruins is … wait … score more goals!
This may seem like the kind of tip you could get from a Bazooka Joe comic, but look at how much the Bruins have evolved without their best players being offended at 5-on-5. 2 in this best-of-7 series with no 5-on-5 points from Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, David Backes, David Krejci, David Pastrnak and Jake DeBrusk.
Can confirm: the saddest I have ever known when building a full screen. We are about to talk about it @NBCSBST grant pic.twitter.com/yljSxfMabm
– Megan Kelly (@mmegankelly) June 5, 2019
But how can they score more? Pastrnak seemed to have an innovative idea when asked what improvements the Bruins should bring in the fifth game.
"Of course we would like to shoot more," he said. "I do not think we've had enough shots and we have bodies in front of the goalkeeper and we have a second chance. I think we gave up a lot of shots in the last game and that's the most important state for us. Whenever we do these things and put ourselves in front of the guardian, we always score a lot. "
The Bruins did not score much in the first game, but they beat the Blues 38-20 in a 4-2 win. Since then, their total throws are 23, 24, 23. Now this 24 of game 3 is misleading because they had 20 after two periods and then stopped a bit of fuel to get to the rout 7-2.
The only prescription here is more blows. Merchant had no shots on the net in the fourth game. Embarrassing.
When the Bruins played their offensive mark during several periods of the series, they settled goalkeeper Jordan Binnington's goal. He gives up the rebounds, he gets shaken. Perceptions of him as impenetrable and imperturbable proved to be myths. With each goal that the guy gives up, he raises his head as if he's just watched his dog get knocked over. If the Bruins looked the same way the Blues were trying to get to Tuukka Rask, Binnington could even break.
In the playoffs, he is 4-5 while facing 30 shots or more. Now, Rask is only 8-6 and the chances of each goalkeeper winning probably decrease with the number of shots made, but if the Bruins are smarter in offense, if they think to shoot first and pass second below the points, they could put Binnington's talent to the test.
"Well, I certainly think coming in. Coyle's goal the other night was a good example: put the puck in the net, get inside, bounce back," said Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy, on how Boston can generate more offensive 5 against 5. "There will be rebounds if we get there, if we have traffic. I mean it sounds cliché but it's the truth. That's how they scored their goals, they came to the net with traffic, rebounds, second chances to enter. It's typically that. It's a good reloading team, so odd reeds are hard.
Cassidy also spoke of the defense raising the puck faster and using different moves to avoid the heavy weight of the failure before. That goes for all the defenders, be it Steven Kampfer, Urho Vaakanainen or Grzelcyk.
This is the solution to the problems of the Bruins. Do not juggle between the lines, although it might help to get Karson Kuhlman's fresh legs in the training instead of David Backes.
Certainly not dress seven defenders. When you are as offensive as the Bruins have a score of 5 against 5, it makes no sense to do less of the front, to mess up the lines and the defense pairs so that a guy can get dressed and play eight minutes.
There are two or three games left in this season. Admittedly, the young Bruins defense, led by Charlie McAvoy (21), Brandon Carlo (22) and Torey Krug (28) can face a heavier workload. Heck, the Blues did not even have any injury problem in the fourth game and they had played only five defenders, Joel Edmundson playing at 7:24. If the three or four best players in Boston need to play more than 25 minutes each, so be it. They are young, they have two days to rest before the sixth match. Even a reduced version of McAvoy or Krug after playing more minutes is better than a handful of minutes from Kampfer or Vaakanainen.
No programming gadget is needed here. The Bruins' best strikers have to take up the challenge, use their speed to get the Blues to pay for giants in their defense corps and make Binnington work for his stops.
If they do not, they will have zero point and no excuses.
The Big Bad Blog is presented by:
Technological decisions are not black and white. Think red. Click here for more.
Related:
[ad_2]
Source link