BOSTON – It sounds kind of funny to say this, but the past few weeks have been a bit of a slog for Boston’s Perfection Line.
The goals haven’t been flowing for Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak in 5-on-5 play and the Bruins have had to rely on other sources of offense to get them by, including in their 5-2 win over the St. Louis Blues on Thursday night at TD Garden. David Backes, Torey Krug, Chris Wagner and Sean Kuraly all scored goals, but the Bruins also did get a third-period score from Marchand mixed in there.
- MORE BRUINS - Bjork will be out 5-6 months after shoulder surgery
It was a picturesque play with Charlie McAvoy wheeling through the offensive zone and behind the net before finding Marchand all alone in front for the easy-pickings goal. It was Marchand’s third goal in his past seven games, but he also held completely off the board in three of those games while getting saddled with a minus-4 rating in that span. Bergeron has just one goal in his past eight games and was a minus-5 in losses Washington and Montreal while Pastrnak has just two goals in his past seven games.
They are still getting their chances and usually holding their own against the other team’s best players, but the usual overflow of offense has slowed to more of a trickle.
“They’ve had a tougher go than at the start of the year. Everything was going in [at the start]. Lately, they’re probably being checked a lot harder. Well, they are being checked a lot harder. They’ll always be checked a lot harder when you get hot like that, and then [there’s] not as much puck luck,” said Bruce Cassidy. “I thought they made some great plays to the slot tonight and got some looks, and they’re not going in as much.
“That [Marchand goal] might get them rolling a little bit as a line. Great play by Charlie [McAvoy]. [It’s] nice to see [McAvoy] active tonight, too, a little more. Great pre-scout there by Kevin [Dean] and Jay [Pandolfo] in terms of that faceoff play and how they sometimes can get lost in coverage. Charlie took advantage of it. Good for him and Marchy was in the right spot.”
Boston Bruins
Find the latest Boston Bruins news, highlights, analysis and more with NBC Sports Boston.
Now, Marchand Co. are hoping that getting together for a goal can change their puck luck and get them back to the dominant production line that they’ve been pretty much all season. Judging by Pastrnak’s night (one shot on net/three giveaways) they still have some work to do, but the trio is certainly putting in the time and starting to see the results.
“Yeah, it does [feel like a grind]. We looked at a little bit of a video at the same time and we could easily have, you know, three or four goals a game. Sometimes it bounces your way. Sometimes it doesn’t. I mean, we even had two two-on-ones that we didn’t connect on and we hit the post late,” said Marchand. “You know we had a couple other good chances, so eventually, if we continue to do those things, it’ll go in the net. If we could move a couple feet here or there, support each other a little bit better, and again, we’ve had opportunities every single game. [It’s] just whether they connect or not. You go through waves every year. It’s up and down and you just got to learn to ride them.”
Nobody doubts that they’ll find their way out of it sooner or later, but it looks like the bye week might be coming at the right time for a trio that might be dealing with some tired legs after logging heavy minutes through the first four months of the season.
Click here to download the new MyTeams App by NBC Sports! Receive comprehensive coverage of your teams and stream the Celtics easily on your device.