Bruins' scoring woes, third-period slump continue despite change at head coach
BOSTON -- The Boston Bruins may have a new head coach on the bench, but the team's scoring woes continue. The Bruins played one of their best defensive games of the season on Tuesday night, but still left TD Garden with a 2-0 loss courtesy of the Vancouver Canucks.
Defensively, the Bruins were nearly impenetrable Tuesday night, surrendering just eight scoring chances on 12 shots on net. Former Bruin Jake DeBrusk was the only one to beat Jeremy Swayman on Tuesday, netting a power play goal in the second period. Vancouver's other tally was an empty-netter by Conor Garland in the closing seconds of the game.
Boston's goose egg wasn't from a lack of trying. The Bruins generated a lot scoring chances of their own against the Canucks, but couldn't put a single one of their 32 shots by Vancouver netminder Kevin Lankinen. The Canucks also blocked 26 shots throughout the night.
The Bruins have had a little more pep in their skates since the team went to Joe Sacco, but they really need their top skaters to start burying their chances to have any hope at turning the season around.
Bruins shutout again
After being shut out just twice all of last regular season, the Bruins have now been kept off the scoreboard four times this season. They haven't scored more than two goals in a game in over two weeks -- a 3-2 win over the St. Louis Blues on Nov. 12 -- and are averaging just 1.33 goals over their last six games.
The Bruins have shown signs of waking up offensively under Sacco, with 187 shot attempts and 93 shots on net over his three games since replacing Jim Montgomery. But Boston has scored just three times for their new head coach.
"We just have to start burying our chances," Sacco said after the defeat, which was his first loss as head coach of the Bruins. "I think we're giving ourselves a chance to compete in games now. The guys are defending hard, but offensively we have to get some guys going and find their scoring touch."
B's captain Brad Marchand led the way with six shots on goal Tuesday night, while Elias Lindholm and David Pastrnak had three apiece against the Canucks. That trio has yet to get going this season, with just 17 goals between them. Pastrnak leads Boston with eight tallies, but has now gone five games without lighting the lamp. Marchand has just one goal in his last seven games, while Lindholm has just one over his last 20 contests.
"The dam is going to break at some point," said defenseman Charlie McAvoy, who scored in each of Boston's first two games of the season but has just one goal since. "Just hope it's soon. We just got to keep playing the right way. We're stressing defense in here, and we're doing a great job of it. I think it has helped our offensive game. We just can't score."
With their top skaters struggling to score, the Bruins rank 30th in the NHL with 51 goals on the season and last in the league at 2.22 goals per game.
Bruins can't score at TD Garden in the third period
The Bruins had 10 shots on goal in the final period Tuesday night. But as has been an ongoing trend this year, none of those pucks found a way into the net.
Boston has just one third-period goal at home this entire season, and it came off the stick of Mark Kastelic in the team's home opener against the Montreal Canadiens on October. 10. The Bruins have gone over 12 games without a third-period goal at home, a drought that is now up to 244 straight minutes.
Boston has scored just 10 third-period goals all season, which ranks dead last in the NHL.
The Bruins, now 10-10-3 on the season, will hit the road to play the New York Islanders on Wednesday night. They'll then return home Friday night when they open a three-game homestand against the Pittsburgh Penguins, which should give the team plenty of chances to snap this third-period slump.