Last season the Bruins finished the year with 141 five-on-five goals, tied for 16th with the Edmonton Oilers, and the Edmonton Oilers.
So far through two games, the Bruins five-on-five issues from last year are continuing as they’ve yet to score a goal five-on-five.
"We're not shooting enough. We're not playing off the original shot. That to me is just not playing hockey for a while, we're always looking to make a pass," said Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy. "It showed tonight. Our forward shot totals, they can't be very encouraging. We'll address it and they're gonna have to buy into that."
Devils forward Egor Sharangovich gave New Jersey the 2-1 victory with 1.7 seconds left in overtime Saturday afternoon.
For the second game in a row the Bruins got outstanding goaltending, this time from Jaroslav Halak, but it was the lack of offense that once again caused the Bruins issues.
"It's a work in progress," said Patrice Bergeron who scored the Bruins lone goal while shorthanded. "You're trying to work on a lot of things, the system, and make sure you gel as a team. It's early in the year. You take the three out of four [points], but you always expect more and expect to be better.”
The Bruins finished the contest with 28 shots on goal, 22 coming five-on-five. But of those 22, the majority came as lackluster efforts from low-scoring areas.
It was a very uninspiring effort overall by the Bruins.
The Bruins defensemen did a good job of getting pucks through to the net, combining for 12 shots. But on those shots that landed on net, the lack of a threat from the Bruins forwards made things easy for Devils goalie Mackenzie Blackwood.
“The D’s had a lot of shots today that, as forwards, we’ve got to get there and find a way to tip those or get some rebounds,” said Bergeron.
The Bruins are still without David Pastrnak which of course does not help fix your five-on-five woes. After getting the nod to take Pastrnak’s spot atop the top line Thursday, Jack Studnicka was a healthy scratch on Saturday. This time, it was Anders Bjork to the right of Bergeron and Brad Marchand.
After about a period of giving the Bruins a whole lot of nothing on the line, Bjork was moved off the line for David Krejci.
Yes, that David Krejci. Losing Ondrej Kase to injury didn’t help the matter.
"Just juggled some things around. And obviously with Kase going out, [David Pastrnak] already being out, you're limited in who can go up in that top spot. We're certainly trying to make it work until Pasta comes back. [Craig] Smith missing a game so you want to be careful with him and how much you put on his plate,” said Cassidy.
"It ended up being David Krejci a little bit, probably more than I would like as a center, but they have good chemistry. David can play with anybody. He still took some turns in the middle, just trying to muster something, we ended up getting it shorthanded but nothing five-on-five.”
Frustrating for the Bruins was also zero five-on-five shots attempts by both Bjork and Marchand.
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