The Boston Bruins are rolling once again, as they are currently in the middle of a six-game win streak after losing three games in a four game stretch earlier this month. The Bruins officially clinched the Atlantic Division on Saturday afternoon after picking up a hard-fought 2-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning, marking the latest achievement in what has been an incredible season for Boston.
With ten games left on the season, the B's appear to be well on their way to rewriting the history books. Their record through 72 games (56-11-5) is outrageous, and if they can win seven of their final ten games, they will set the record for most wins in a single NHL season with 63. With 117 points as well, they also only need 16 more points to break the current record of 132. Of course, these records mean nothing if they can't win the Stanley Cup, but they are both within reach for Boston as the regular season winds down.
Given their incredible stretch of winning throughout the season, it's safe to say that the Bruins don't have many weaknesses as the playoffs approach. But one area that they appear to be struggling with a bit is their power play, and if they want to reach their ultimate goal, they are going to have to solve this issue by the time the playoffs get underway.
The Bruins need to revamp their power play unit
First, a disclaimer of sorts; the Bruins power play unit isn't exactly bad, but considering how good they have been throughout the season at virtually everything else, it is a bit lacking. And when the playoffs approach, and goals become tougher to come by, you need to take advantage of the extra-man advantages you have as frequently as possible.
Boston has scored on 21.77 percent of their power plays this season, which is 14th in the league. Again, that's not exactly bad, but given how much they have been scoring this season, it's a bit underwhelming. In the month of March so far, Boston has just seven power play goals, with most of them coming during their recent six-game win streak.
Maybe this unit is getting hot right before the playoffs, and if that's the case, perfect. This is a rather nitpicky thing to point out, but for a team as good as Boston, you can't settle for mediocrity in any stage of the game. Anything short of winning the Stanley Cup this season is a failure, and if the power play could destroy their title hopes, it needs to be fixed.
A bigger part of the problem is that it's not as if the Bruins aren't getting power plays, because they are. Their 248 power plays are fifth most in the league, and their 3.44 power play opportunities per game is the third highest in the league. So despite being a relatively mediocre power play team, Boston is still thrashing the league on a nightly basis.
Whether or not this is a sign of concern or not remains to be seen. On one hand, they are dominating five-on-five hockey, which is how the majority of games are played. But again, playoff hockey is a completely different game. The Bruins have the experience to recognize this, but a failure to capitalize on power plays has come back to haunt them in previous playoff runs, and that simply cannot happen this year.
The good news for the Bruins is that the turnaround may already be in progress, and they certainly have the talent needed to get hot at any point in time here. It's probably better that they are ironing things out now before they get into the playoffs, but with ten games left, it's not like they have a ton of time to improve their play here.
The Bruins have been good enough on the season to earn the benefit of the doubt as the playoffs draw near. But of course, given the Presidents Trophy curse, and Boston's recent inability to win a Stanley Cup, everyone will be a little on edge as the playoffs start. If the power play unit can figure things out and increase their scoring rate a bit, though, this team will be in perfect position to make the deep playoff run they are primed for right now.
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