Bruins’ Impressive Penalty Kill Has Been Outstanding In Postseason
Besides the outstanding goaltending from Jeremy Swayman in the postseason, the Boston Bruins are riding a near-perfect penalty kill in the eight games they’ve played in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Boston is 23-for-24 on the penalty kill with the lone goal coming in the first round against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Since allowing the Leafs to score on the man advantage in Game 2, the Bruins have successfully killed off 20 straight penalties in their last six games.
“There’s confidence when you go on a stretch like this,” Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery told reporters on Tuesday, per team-provided video. I also think (assistant coach) Joe Sacco has a tremendous plan, and the players really buy into it and execute it really well. Then, (Jeremy Swayman’s) making a lot of saves.”
Swayman stopped all 32 power-play shots he’s faced in the seven games he’s started in the postseason while posting a 1.42 goals-against average and .955 save percentage.
The Leafs (24.0%) and Panthers (23.5) ranked seventh and eighth, respectively, on the power play in the regular season, while the Bruins finished seventh in the league for penalty kill with an 82.5% success rate.
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Boston kept the Panthers off the scoreboard on three opportunities in Game 1.
“They’re top-level power plays,” Montgomery said of the Bruins’ two opponents. “I think stick detail, we’re holding the blue line, we’re forcing dumps.
“What Joe does is he develops a plan to put (the opposing team) in their most uncomfortable situations that would give us the opportunity to kill the penalty.”
In the regular season, the Bruins went 11-for-11 shorthanded in four head-to-head matchups with the Panthers. Boston swept the regular season series 4-0-0.
Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy recognizes how successful the penalty kill has been during his seven years with Boston.
“It’s good, it’s high. We’ve always had a good penalty kill here in Boston,” McAvoy told reporters, per team-provided video. “Joe does an outstanding job with it, so we take a lot of pride in it.
“I think there were times this year when it wasn’t as good as we wanted it to be, but we didn’t really change much. I think we believed in our structure of it, our overall principles, and we’ve seen it come back and give us success now. Obviously, that’s something we need to continue to do, play disciplined first, but when we get on the kill, make sure we’re working in unison.”
The Bruins will look to continue their shorthanded success and take the 2-0 series lead in Game 2 on Wednesday night. Puck drop from Amerant Bank Arena is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET and will be televised on ESPN. An hour of pre- and postgame coverage can be found on NESN+.