When Torey Krug departed Boston and inked a seven-year, $45.5-million contract with the Blues back in October, it was a tough pill to swallow when it came to the Bruins losing a locker-room mainstay, established leader and one of the maestros of the club's lethal top power-play unit.
But in wake of Krug's exit, Boston did have some silver linings to draw from — beyond the fairly obvious cap ramifications when it came to not doling out that type of cash for the playmaking blueliner.
While few would question Krug's proficiency as one of the architects of a man advantage that has routinely diced up opposing PKs for years now, there was room for optimism that both Matt Grzelcyk and Charlie McAvoy could slot into Krug's role on that PP1 unit and there'd be little drop-off — especially considering the usual suspects like Patrice Bergeron at the bumper, Brad Marchand on the elbow and David Pastrnak at the left circle were all not going anywhere.
Last year, Grzelcyk (albeit in a smaller sample size) seemed like a natural fit on the PP1 unit, given that Boston managed to generate a 12.07 goals scored per 60 minutes rate when Grzelcyk skated with Bergeron/Marchand/Pastrnak — while Krug generated a 11.72 GF/60 with that same unit.
And yet, be it through struggles with new weapons up high, stagnant movement or opponents drawing up a winning gameplan against the B's power play, Boston hasn't had nearly as much success with their man advantage in the post-Krug era as many envisioned. And that return to normalcy for what has usually been a cheat code of a scoring unit for years is now costing Boston valuable points in the standings.
March 29, 2021 at 11:01AM
https://www.bostonsportsjournal.com/2021/03/29/little-margin-error-even-average-power-play-isnt-cutting-slumping-bruins-offense/
With little margin for error, even an above-average power play isn't cutting it for this slumping Bruins' offense - bostonsportsjournal.com
https://news.google.com/search?q=little&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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