When Chris Kelly left Tuesday’s loss to the Dallas Stars just three seconds into his first shift, a huge gap on the Bruins’ penalty kill opened up. The Stars took full advantage of that gap. Without Kelly on the ice to fend off the Stars’ lethal power play, the Bruins penalty kill had no answers for Tyler Seguin and company.

Behind two tallies from Seguin on the man advantage, and another strike from Alex Goligoski, the Stars power play had their way with the Bruins penalty kill. After allowing goals on three of four power plays, the Bruins have fallen to dead last in penalty kill percentage in all of the National Hockey League, a far cry from their top-ranked power play.

Already heading in the wrong direction entering Tuesday’s loss, things got a lot worse when Kelly fractured his left femur in the first period on what was nothing but a freak accident.

Allowing a power play strike in all but two contests this season, the Bruins are searching for ways to correct their penalty kill and get things back on track defensively. Without Kelly, that may be easier said than done. The 35-year old veteran only trails Patrice Bergeron in shorthanded time on ice per game among Bruins forwards (who have played in five games or more), averaging 2:23 per game on the penalty kill.

As expected, the Bruins recalled veteran forward Max Talbot from the Providence Bruins Tuesday morning. Talbot is expected to step into the lineup for Kelly and see significant time on the penalty kill, something Kelly was extremely valuable in doing.

“Well I think our whole penalty kill group has to get better number one. You lose Kelly, you lose a good penalty killer. We brought in Max Talbot because number one he is a penalty killer, number two he’s a great veteran, he’s a great leader,” head coach Claude Julien told reporters after Wednesday’s practice. “He comes and plays hard every night, so somewhere along the way you find ways to compensate for Kelly’s loss and Max is our answer to come in and help us out in that area.”

On Thursday, the Bruins begin three games in four nights. With road games in Washington, Montreal and New York (Islanders), the Bruins will see three of the league’s top-ten power play units.

It’s safe to say the Bruins penalty kill will face their toughest stretch of the season over the next four days.

“Right now our penalty kill has to be better. Right now I feel we are on our heels, the confidence level isn’t there like it should be and that’s our job as players, as a team, as a group, as a coaching staff to create that confidence that you need to kill penalties and it takes sacrifices,” Julien added.

“Whether it’s blocking shots, whether it’s being more assertive in certain areas, having better sticks and you know those are areas that have to be better for us. I feel we’ve got the players in our dressing room to be a better penalty killing team, right now we just haven’t done a good enough job.”

Moving from Kelly to Talbot as one of the Bruins’ top penalty killing forwards hurts the team a bit, there’s no doubting that. But Talbot isn’t here to replace Kelly. Talbot is here to be Talbot and do whatever he can to help the team.

“I’m gonna do whatever they ask me to do here and work hard. If I get in the games I will, you know when I get in games I will play hard and do what I have been doing for 11 years,” Talbot told the media prior to the Bruins jetting for Washington. “I am not trying to play like Kells [Chris Kelly] or like anybody else. I am going to play like Max Talbot and that’s all I can do.”

Kelly is not the only key penalty killer the team is missing. Dennis Seidenberg, who is currently recovering from back surgery, has yet to appear in a game this season. The German defenseman will travel with the team for the first time this year, but isn’t expected to see any game action.

No doubt the Bruins currently miss Seidenberg and will miss Kelly, but regardless, the guys who are in the lineup need to find a way to get the job done.

“Well there’s no doubt you miss guys like him [Seidenberg], we’re gonna miss guys like Chris Kelly and miss guys like him. With that being said, we still have players that should be able to step up and do the job,” Julien added. “So don’t want to use that as an excuse, but certainly when the more guys you have who can do that job, the better it is. We have to look at we have and what we have should be good enough to be a lot better than we are right now.”