Charlie McAvoy and the rest of the Bruins defense have scored just twice in 11 games, Jack Studley points out.
Last night's 5-2 loss to Montreal added another game to that stretch. Will Borgen and Nikita Zadorov each picked up an assist, but no defenseman found the net.
The pairings did not move at practice: Hampus Lindholm with McAvoy, Zadorov with Borgen, Aspirot with Lohrei. Frederic Brunet and Connor Clifton skated as extras.
A Bruins beat account shared the lines this morning, and they confirm Marco Sturm is not touching the back end.
Now the numbers. Bruins defensemen scored six goals in the first eight games, and one of them went into an empty net. Over the last 11 games they have two, and one of those was also an empty-netter.
Studley's breakdown also shows how much it matters: Boston is 7-0-0 when a defenseman scores.
Against the Canadiens, Borgen put four shots on goal in 20:40 and Zadorov added two. McAvoy logged 22:26 without a single shot on net.
Where will the Bruins defense find its goals?
Mason Lohrei has three goals, the most of any Bruins defenseman. Borgen has two, while Hampus Lindholm, McAvoy and Brunet have one each. Zadorov has six assists and no goals.
McAvoy is the problem to solve. He has one goal and eight assists in 13 games, and a 22-minute night with no shots is not what a top-pair defenseman who drives this group should produce. Boston is winning when the blue line chips in, and right now it barely does.
The rest of the team has not collapsed around it. The Bruins are 6-3-1 over their last 10 games.
Some of that scoring, in fairness, was always going to come from the forwards. The Michael Eyssimont, Fraser Minten and Morgan Geekie line we covered Wednesday is still intact, and Casey Mittelstadt scored twice against Montreal.
Saturday brings the Minnesota Wild to Boston. They are 14-3-4, second in the NHL, and they come in with a record of 8-0-2 over their last 10. The Bruins will find out quickly whether a defenseman can break the drought.
This article was written with the help of artificial intelligence, based on public reports and official sources.
Which Bruins defenseman scores first against the Wild?
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