Browns

“Whether that’s the will to go to those areas or not the right game plan – we’re all guilty of not coming out with a win tonight.”

Jim Montgomery might have said it best when he answered questions Tuesday night.

After another night where Boston’s already struggling offense dried up against a porous Philadelphia defense, the Bruins’ bench boss was at a loss.

“I don’t know,” Montgomery stated when asked if the Bruins skaters are thinking too much about things in the offensive zone. “It’s just that we don’t make plays. We’re not doing enough to generate high-risk scoring opportunities.

“Whether that’s the will to go to those areas or not the right game plan. It’s all our fault that we didn’t come out with a win tonight.”

In a season where Boston’s inability to put the puck in the net has extinguished any hope of another strong start, Tuesday’s 2-0 loss to the Flyers represented a new low.

Despite Montgomery’s repeated pleas for increased puck pressure and urgency, the Bruins again spent significant portions of Tuesday’s game sleepwalking into the offensive zone.

Trailing 1-0 entering the final period, the Bruins managed just three shots on goal in the third period, losing to a Flyers squad that came in with a 2-6-1 record. Boston currently ranks 26th in the NHL in offense with just 2.70 goals per game.

“It’s a lot of things,” Montgomery said of Boston’s struggles in the offensive zone. “It seems like some guys are still fighting it, as far as their confidence and their ability to just be fluid with the puck on the ice.”

Once a foundational strength of Boston’s offense, the Bruins’ power play has eroded significantly from 2024-2025.

Not only are the Bruins struggling to convert on their chances (14.3 percent, 26th in the NHL), they’re not even putting pucks on net while they have an extra skater.

The Bruins had four bids on the power play in Tuesday’s loss, including a 5-on-3 series in the opening period that lasted 1:37. Boston finished with just two total shots on goal on the power play, including zero during the standard 5-on-4 replays on the man advantage.

Whether it’s players gripping their sticks or a lack of a shot-first mentality, the Bruins are doing little to make opposing PKs pay in recent weeks.

“That’s normal when you’re wrestling offensively, you hold the stick a little bit,” Hampus Lindholm said. “When you’re on a hot streak, you usually take the puck and kill it right away. You don’t really think. This game becomes much easier if you just play with your intuition.”

At this point, it remains to be seen exactly what Montgomery and his staff can do when it comes to bolstering Boston’s underwhelming forward corps.

An adjustment to the top power play unit could send a message, especially as Charlie McAvoy fails to add much urgency as the team’s playmaker along the blue line.

Switching to a left shot D like Lindholm or even a rookie like Mason Lohrei could add some more speed to that unit, especially when it comes to passing clean pucks to David Pastrnak for good scoring opportunities.

“Faster puck movement,” Montgomery said of the solution to Boston’s ailing power play. “If you move the puck fast enough and think you have to shoot first, they won’t get into the shooting lanes. They are one player less, especially five against three, they are two players less.”

But the Bruins are currently limited in what exactly they can do with the personnel available. Montgomery has tried just about every conceivable lineup combination in 5-on-5 action through Boston’s first 10 games.

It will be up to the players themselves to generate more offense on the ice – or a more seismic change driven by management.

“Nobody’s going to give it to you for free in this league,” Lindholm said. “You’re going to have to work for it and you’ve got to start it off right by winning your battle, and from there take the puck to the net instead of trying to get that tap because that doesn’t happen in this competition.

“You’re going to have to work for it and get that mentality for everyone here and do it as a team.”

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Conor Ryan is a staff writer for the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots and Red Sox for Boston.com, a role he has held since 2023.

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