BOSTON – The Bruins have amazingly survived, and even thrived, without Patrice Bergeron in the lineup while going an impressive 5-0-0 since No. 37 was shelved with a fractured right foot. But it hasn’t been all sunshine and roses for the Black and Gold without their best all-around player, of course, and nowhere has it been felt more than in the face-off circle.
Bergeron is the NHL’s premier man on the draw (56.9 percent win rate this season) and has been for the last decade, and has the three Selke Trophies to show for it as the league’s best defensive forward. But without Bergeron the Bruins have dropped to a 47 percent win rate in the face-off circle in the last five games, and have really bottomed out in the last two games while going a ridiculously bad 43-for-123 (a 35 percent win rate) in the face-off circle.
That manifested itself in the Flyers winning the shots on net battle and much of the possession battle against the Bruins on Thursday night, and made the special teams an uphill battle because the B’s weren’t starting with the puck most of the time.
“I think we’re getting beat up a little bit. You’ve got to be careful; you don’t want to keep putting one guy out in your end the whole game. We’ve tried to avoid that with [Bergeron], as well. Bergy, Nash, we’ll use [Sean] Kuraly [for big D-zone face-offs]. We tried [Tommy] Wingels [against the Flyers]; he has taken a few,” said Bruce Cassidy. “So we’re trying to share the workload there, as well. I think it’s taxing, especially if you lose it; now you’re stuck in your end.
“So we’ve got to be careful. If we use [Riley] Nash for a draw and they lose it, then he doesn’t play with [David Pastrnak] and [Brad Marchand]. Now you’re upsetting what is your top line. You just have to, kind of, suck it up a little bit and go get the puck back, and block the shot as a winger knowing that you could lose some draws. I think that’s what happened [against the Flyers].”
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It doesn’t figure to get much better this weekend either with the Bruins getting ready for a home-and-home series against face-off ace Jonathan Toews and the Chicago Blackhawks, so the Bruins will need to keep grinding their way until David Backes returns in a couple of games, and then later on down the line when Bergeron returns to good health as well. Until then it could be a bit of a rocky road for the Black and Gold in a face-off circle area that’s traditionally been a big time team strength for Boston for a long, long time.
