The Boston Bruins defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins 6-4 on Saturday night, but they were unable to capitalize on their man advantage, going 0-for-3.
Worse, Charlie McAvoy, a defenseman for the Bruins, made a feeble attempt to keep the ball in the attacking zone, allowing a shorthanded goal to be scored on the Bruins’ powerplay. He was outwitted by Pittsburgh Penguins forward Lars Eller to the ball, which he then poked up to Penguins winger Drew O’Connor, a graduate of Dartmouth University. O’Connor beat Bruins goalie Linus Ullmark to bring the Penguins within one goal 4:32 into the third period. Bruins captain Brad Marchand was the only player who could catch up to O’Connor, but he was too fast.
That prompted Boston Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery to unload his frustration on Charlie McAvoy and the top power play unit when they returned to the bench. The Bruins bench boss was asked about the tongue-lashing that appeared to be directed at McAvoy.
“It wasn’t just Charlie,” Montgomery said. “It was me giving it to everybody on the power play. There was just no cohesion. The passing was off, and I didn’t like the effort getting back after the turnover — by everybody.”
The shorthanded goal against also prompted Montgomery to take McAvoy off the point on the top power play unit and replace him with veteran Kevin Shattenkirk. Montgomery was asked about the move after the game.
“I don’t know, it’s just in-game. …it wasn’t looking good the first couple of powerplays, so I just switched it up; I thought we got a couple of different looks, and I thought the second unit actually had better looks,” Montgomery pointed out.
The Bruins didn’t score on the next power play, but this could be something worth watching in the final two games of the regular season as Montgomery tries to jumpstart the struggling power play. Could McAvoy be better suited to being a rover rather than working the point?
Leave a Reply