Bruins
The Bruins’ lack of scoring punch has played a significant role in their 3-3-1 start this season.
Jim Montgomery could only shake his head in frustration on Tuesday night in Nashville.
If there was ever a “get-right” game for Boston after a listless overtime loss to Utah on Saturday, it was against an 0-5-0 Predators team relinquishing 4.6 goals per game.
It did end up being a momentum-shifting night at Bridgestone Arena, at least for the home team.
With Boston’s 4-0 loss to the Predators, the Bruins now sit at 3-3-1 to open the 2024-25 season — with a stagnant offensive output scuttling any shot of Boston orchestrating its customary strong start during Montgomery’s three-year tenure.
“I think, one, is we stick together,” Montgomery said of Boston’s response moving forward. “No 2 is we have a process that has given us a lot of success. We’ve got to get back to that. Unfortunately, it’s either sometimes we’re not starting on time or sometimes we’re not finishing playing 60 minutes.”
While there are several recurring issues plaguing Boston at this early stage of the new season, the team’s inability to generate in the offensive zone stands as the most concerning.
A scorching start from Boston’s fourth line and an unsustainable shooting percentage (10.8 percent at 5-on-5 play) has masked just how dreadful the Bruins have been in the offensive zone through seven games.
The Bruins rank 30th in the NHL in 5-on-5 shot attempts per 60 minutes, 29th in shots on goal, and 31st in scoring chances. Seven of the team’s 14 tallies have come from the fourth line, with expected lineup stalwarts like Charlie Coyle, Trent Frederic, Pavel Zacha, and Morgan Geekie limited to two points or fewer this season.
Something’s got to give if this team expects to pile up some points in the standings, especially with the team’s power play also misfiring (4-for-29) out of the gate.
As Montgomery and the Bruins try to right the ship on offense, here are three ways that Boston can try to provide a remedy for their scoring drought.
Sign Tyler Johnson
Tyler Johnson seems to be following in Danton Heinen’s footsteps when it comes to his role on the Bruins’ roster.
Despite impressing as a professional tryout (PTO) candidate last preseason, Heinen didn’t sign a one-year, league-minimum deal with Boston until Oct. 30, 2023 — with the Bruins needing time to bank enough cap space to craft a contract.
Johnson finds himself in a similar boat after holding his own during preseason action while on a PTO deal. Even though he remains unsigned, Johnson has stuck around the Bruins’ training facility in hopes of eventually putting pen to paper on a new deal.
But with Boston operating with just $440,533 in cap space (per PuckPedia), the team currently doesn’t have the means to even hand Johnson a similar league-minimum deal as the one Heinen signed a year ago.
Of course, the Bruins could accelerate the timeline of that contract signing by clearing money off their books at the NHL level — especially if they opt to waive a player like Riley Tufte or Max Jones in the coming days.
At this point, Johnson would be a welcome sight on a Bruins forward corps short on scoring talent.
Even though the 34-year-old Johnson is no longer the player who posted 72 points with the Lightning in 2014-15, the versatile forward did score 17 goals in 67 games with a bad Blackhawks team in 2023-24.
Given the dearth of crafty playmakers on Boston’s roster, bringing in a skater like Johnson could give Boston another intriguing option — be it on the wing next to Charlie Coyle or even down as the team’s third-line center.
Call up Fabian Lysell
The Bruins wanted to see more from Fabian Lysell at the pro level before giving him his first shot in the NHL ranks.
Despite one promising preseason outing against the Capitals, the 21-year-old winger largely underwhelmed this fall before getting sent back down to Providence once again.
“The consistency piece, everybody sees the skill set that Fabian has, and we’re excited about it,” Don Sweeney said of the young forward in September. “Now we continue to allow him to fill in the gaps in terms of building a team game that Monty feels is a big part of what makes the Bruins have success.”
But even if the team doesn’t believe that Lysell has done enough to round out his game completely, his strengths are tough to ignore — especially on a Bruins team severely lacking in O-zone creativity and skill.
Despite some of his hot-and-cold stretches and deficiencies down the other end of the ice, Lysell’s skating ability and scoring touch is evident — with the 2021 first-round pick posting 50 points over 56 games with Providence last year.
After a quiet start against AHL competition this fall, Lysell put together a two-point weekend with Providence against Springfield — including a highlight-reel tally on Saturday.
Yes, Lysell may be far from a finished product. And it should be expected for there to be some growing pains in the NHL if he’s given a shot in the coming weeks.
But if Montgomery and the Bruins are going to stick with players like Jones and Tufte after committing several costly offensive-zone penalties, that same leeway and patience should be prescribed to a young talent like Lysell if given a chance to showcase his play.
There stands a chance that Lysell can’t hold his own at the next level. But the Bruins will never know what they have in such a promising player if they don’t give him a legitimate look.
Stop taking penalties
Yes, the Bruins could continue to reshuffle their lines moving forward in hopes of additional offense — pushing playmakers like Matt Poitras or surprise contributors like Cole Koepke further up the lineup in hopes of strong results.
But the Bruins also aren’t exactly maximizing the talents of their top playmaker in David Pastrnak — due in large part to their propensity for landing in the sin bin.
The Bruins have now taken a whopping 39 penalties through seven games, including another six on Tuesday against Nashville.
Pastrnak himself was knocked for a hooking call just 13 seconds into Tuesday’s loss, but Boston’s latest deluge of penalties is also limiting just how much time Pastrnak can log on the ice.
Pastrnak only recorded 16:18 of ice time on Tuesday — including just 11:52 of 5-on-5 ice time.
“[Pastrnak] only had nine minutes and 30 seconds after two periods because we had to kill six minors,” Montgomery said Tuesday. “It overtaxes certain players. Certain players are playing too many minutes and others players are sitting on the bench for too long.”
Because Boston is spending so much time on the penalty kill night in and night out, Pastrnak’s ice time has taken a significant hit — given that the skilled winger is never called upon for PK reps.
So far this season, Pastrnak is averaging just 14:26 of even-strength ice time per game — which ranks 250th among skaters in the NHL.
There’s no need to dive into the analytics when it comes to detailing Pastrnak’s importance to this team’s offensive capabilities. The more that Pastrnak is out on the ice at even-strength play, the greater the Bruins’ chances are of generating scoring chances.
It’s not going to happen if he’s stapled to the bench because of a parade of ill-timed infractions and undisciplined stick fouls.
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