Takeaways: Bruins’ penalty and scoring troubles continue

It’s still incredibly early into the 2024-25 season. But a mere seven games in, the Boston Bruins are about to face their first gut-check moment of the new campaign.

Amid the few ups and several downs through the first six games, Tuesday’s 4-0 loss to the previously winless Nashville Predators undoubtedly marked Boston’s lowest moment of the first few weeks.

The wholesale changes within Boston’s forward core ahead of Tuesday’s tilt provided zero spark. Between a struggling offense, penalty trouble and ongoing turnover issues, Jim Montgomery’s club chased nearly the entirety of their 60-minute tilt in the ‘Music City.’

Here are a few thoughts from an ugly finish to Boston’s three-game road trip.

The ill-timed penalty trend continued

Amid their inconsistent start, the Bruins developed one consistent but ugly habit over their first seven games.

That trend continued into Tuesday as the Bruins committed seven minor penalties — including Charlie McAvoy’s double-minor for high-sticking — resulting in 17 penalty minutes.

“That’s too much,” Zadorov told reporters. “You can’t win hockey games playing that way.”

Zadorov would know. After all, the rugged veteran defenseman made at least one visit to the penalty box in the first seven games of his Boston tenure.

Aside from Marc Kastelic’s bout with Luke Schenn, all of Boston’s infractions from Tuesday’s loss came at inopportune times, beginning with Pastrnak’s hooking minor a mere 13 seconds in.

At least in Zadorov’s case, he prevented Alexandre Carrier from notching a secondary scoring bid in the attacking end after tripping the Preds forward near the goal line. Still, Zadorov’s latest penalty came shortly after the Bruins had slowly found their rhythm following a flat performance in the opening 20 minutes.

“I’ve got seven in a row,” Zadorov told the media about his early-season penalty habits. “It’s on me. Obviously, I’ve got to be better. Sometimes they happen [when] I try to save a play, or I try to make a hard play or turn [the puck] over…you don’t want the puck to go into your net, you want to prevent it, and [sometimes] you have to take a penalty. Unfortunately, that’s what happened today for me, at least.”

The penalty trouble didn’t end with Zadorov.

Max Jones, in his first game on a second-line assignment with Charlie Coyle and Trent Frederic, took two ill-timed penalties later in the opening frame.

The Bruins killed off Jones’ first minor, an interference infraction on Brady Skjei in the neutral zone. Yet, Jones put the shorthanded unit in another tough spot after he tripped Alexandre Carrier in Boston’s attacking zone late in the opening frame. Shortly following his faceoff win, Ryan O’Reilly tipped Roman Josi’s shot past Jeremy Swayman for the game’s first tally.

Boston’s shorthanded unit killed Zadorov’s penalty. But they failed to get one last clear on the tail half of Charlie McAvoy’s double-minor for high-sticking Steven Stamkos, falling behind 2-0 on Tommy Novak’s net-front tally at 16:55 of the middle stanza.

Through the end of Tuesday’s slate, the Bruins sit atop the league in total penalties with 43. Between the ongoing scoring issues and the rotating personnel within their middle six, they can ill afford to turn a troubling early-season penalty trend into an alarming season-long habit.

Boston’s offense lacked a finish to its high-danger chances.

Given a productive start from Kastelic, Johnny Beecher and Cole Koepke, Montgomery had every reason to keep his fourth line intact. If anything, he wanted to give that trio an extended look after pacing Boston’s scoring production through the first two weeks of the season.

As for the rest of the group, Montgomery threw his other three lines in a proverbial blender ahead of Tuesday’s tilt. For the most part, all four of Montgomery’s trios generated some decent looks on Jusse Saros, including breakaway bids from David Pastrnak and a trio of shots on a first-period power play attempt.

The Bruins generated high shot volume, firing 33 shots on net and accounting for seven high-danger scoring chances during 5v5 play. But the lack of finish and passing issues led to another round of scoring struggles.

“We created enough to score,” Montgomery told NESN’s Andy Brickley. “But we didn’t have enough to finish, and I don’t think we were very clean with our passing tonight.”

Frankly, the Bruins haven’t had a clean outing through their first seven games. And Montgomery can only do so much to find some sort of cohesion within Boston’s forward core.

The frequent line changes have provided early-season growing pains.

Even in previous years featuring an established core, the Bruins know their roster in October will look different by the second week in March. But under Montgomery, the Bruins hardly had to endure through early-season growing pains.

Part of Boston’s slow start this year stems from off-season additions like Zadorov and Elias Lindholm adjusting themselves to new homes. In part, the acclimation process with Lindholm, Zadorov, Kastelic, Koepke and other newcomers played a role in Montgomery frequently adjusting his lineup.

Of course, the scoring woes, turnover problems, defensive breakdowns, and penalty trouble were among the main reasons Montgomery had to alter his forward groupings and defensive pairs outside of the fourth line. His lineup edits could continue after Tuesday’s wholesale changes, highlighted by a top-heavy trio of Marchand, Lindholm and Pastrnak, produced zero results.

Perhaps Tyler Johnson or Fabian Lysell aren’t long-term answers, either. But both provide more enticing options over the likes of Jones, Riley Tufte and Justin Brazeau, who have all been ineffective during their stints on Boston’s middle-six.

As Johnson patiently waits for a potential deal after arriving as a PTO and Lysell continues to showcase his offensive creativity in Providence, one has to wonder if either candidate will enter Boston’s lineup as soon as Thursday. At the very least, both products warrant a look at some point this season.