Kalman: Hayes Ends Drought, Moore Keeps Rolling In Bruins' Win Vs. Lightning
By Matt Kalman
BOSTON (CBS) -- Maybe rubbing shoulders as a linemate of resurgent sniper Dominic Moore paid off for Bruins forward Jimmy Hayes on Sunday.
Moore, enjoying an offensive renaissance at 36 years old with six goals in just 21 games, continued his hot hand by opening the scoring in the Bruins' 4-1 romp over the Tampa Bay Lightning at TD Garden on Saturday.
Hayes, a one-time 19-goal scorer, had been the poster child for the Bruins' offensive woes. The Bruins are ranked 28th in the NHL in goals per game and they had scored four goals during their three-game losing streak before the Lightning visited. Hayes hadn't notched a point and hadn't scored since Feb. 24, 2016 – a stretch of 35 games.
And then with the Bruins already ahead 2-0, Hayes won a puck battle with Tampa Bay's Ryan Callahan at the Lightning blue line. Hayes dished off to David Krejci and drove the net. Krejci lived up to his reputation with a perfect backhand pass toward the net and Hayes tipped it past the goaltender Ben Bishop.
Hayes celebrated with a gesture translated as throwing the monkey off his back. He later joked it was an elephant and noted that he might've lost 100 pounds after the goal.
"It feels really good. It's been a while," Hayes said. "To be able to contribute and get a goal and start moving in the right direction, that's what the plan is."
The plan for the Bruins is to score at a pace more like the one that landed them fifth in the rankings last season at 2.88 goals per game.They really haven't had any excuses for doing so poorly in the scoring department. And although Hayes has taken a lot of the blame, there's been plenty to go around. David Backes scored just his fifth goal of the season against the Lightning. Patrice Bergeron is stuck on three goals and Torey Krug, who made a strong play to help set up Backes' goal on the power play, has just one goal. In fact, you could make the case that everyone except for Moore can eat a piece of the blame pie.
The Bruins' problem this season was supposed to be their defense. Instead they've been done in by their offense. Imagine a Bruins team without Moore already matching his goal total from 80 games last season with the New York Rangers.
Moore, of course, is no one's idea – not even his – of a sniper. But he is now tied for second on the team in goals with Brad Marchand.
"Obviously we've been struggling to score goals of late," Moore said. "I think every goal's important in any game and we obviously want to start by defending well. But then finding ways to create chances, finding ways to get it to the back of the net. Fortunate enough to do that today."
When the Bruins signed Moore, they wanted his leadership, experience, penalty killing and faceoff wins. Sure he'd scored 18 goals for Tampa Bay in 2010-11, but he'd cooled off in recent years and hadn't scored more than 10 in a season. Through his savvy he's scored twice shorthanded and he has four even-strength goals through hard work and some luck. Hayes could've used some of that luck the past couple weeks, when he had plenty of chances around the net to end his drought earlier but couldn't solve the goaltenders.
Hayes stuck with it, though, and Bruins coach Claude Julien kept sending Hayes over the boards. It finally paid off.
"Just continue to work hard. Just got to put your head down and try to find a way to put a puck in the back of the net," Hayes said about his recent approach. "I started to get some chances here lately and to get one to go in is nice."
To be fair to Hayes, he's been playing on the fourth line for a while now. When it comes to fourth lines, the offensive expectations should be pretty low. However, the way the Bruins' offense has panned out, they need scoring from everyone.
No one expects Moore to keep scoring on his 23-goal pace any more than they should expect Hayes to score in the single digits. Things will even out and if Moore, Hayes, and a third forward (probably not Ryan Spooner) give the Bruins a fourth line that doesn't give up much and chips in, that's all Julien asks for from them.
Matt Kalman covers the Bruins for CBSBoston.com and also contributes to NHL.com and several other media outlets. Follow him on Twitter @MattKalman.