Despite the fact the season just started and the boys on the ice are still developing chemistry, the lack of scoring early on should be an extremely concerning, red flag for Bruins fans after three games.
With the Bruins leading scorer from a year ago in the form of David Pastrnak, recovering from offseason surgery on his right hip. An injury the winger suffered while in the Toronto bubble. The Bruins offense so far has scored just three goals this season. There is a fourth goal that has been recorded via shootout, but does not get counted towards players stats, and that is what we are basing this article off of strictly. All three coming either in the man advantage or being a man down. The Bruins have yet to score an even strength goal through the first three games of the season.
The defensive core has been the bright spot so far as Charlie McAvoy seems to be quickly becoming the leader of the group after both Torey Krug and Zdeno Chara left during free agency. However there is still much developing to happen for guys like Brandon Carlo, Matt Grzelcyk, Jeremy Lauzon and Jakub Zboril who are going to have big roles to play as the season ramps up. To see Kevan Miller already stepping up and being the big enforcing defenseman that the Bruins need is already an encouraging sign, hopefully he is able to get through the season with no injuries.
When it comes to scoring, it's not that the Bruins aren't getting their chances, they are, it's just that the B's are failing to capitalize on those opportunities. It's one thing to out shoot a team throughout the course of a game, and it's another thing to actually put the puck in the net. Though the object of the game is to get off as many shots as possible, still need to score in order to win games. Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron have the only three goals of the season, two coming from Marchand's stick. Marchand has also scored the lone shootout goal for the Bruins, but again does not count towards his regulation/overtime statistics.
The Bruins will be returning home this Thursday and will play a game at the TD Garden for the first time since March 7th of last year. Even though it will be an empty arena for a vast majority of the season, it should still hopefully be a familiar sight when it comes to the locker room and big logo at center ice. Anything to jump start this team. Obviously, we as fans would love to pack the Garden on Thursday night to give this team a jolt of energy they could use, but we will have to do it from our living rooms or sports caves, or whatever we as fans have.
Once Pastrank returns it should give the team a jolt when it comes to helping them to score even strength goals, and will be a big boost to the power play unit. Until that happens, the B's have to generate other ways to score because right now the shots are simply not going in for the Bruins. Plus, the B's can't afford to fall behind in the division early either. They are in a division with the New York Islanders, Pittsburgh Penguins, Philadelphia Flyers and Washington Capitals this season, teams who have given Boston everything they can handle over the course of the last few seasons; the Capitals especially.
Again, it is still early in the season and this can be considered October for the team, but the Bruins must start treating this like the 2013 lockout shortened season that was a 48-game sprint to the playoffs. Obviously there are eight additional games being played compared to that season eight years ago, but it's still a 56-game sprint to the playoffs where every point matters. Just like the 2020 MLB season, it was a 60-game sprint and a five game losing streak was equivalent to 10-game losing streak during a traditional 162-game season. That's the mind the set the Bruins need to have. Obviously different sports, but the Bruins talent level far exceeds the talent level the Red Sox had in that shortened season.
The Bruins still have 53 games to figure everything out and make another run at the Stanley Cup. However, the teams in their division like to score, and score a lot. That is something the Bruins are going to have to get accustomed to and fast, or else we are in for an extremely long three in a half months.