This season, the Bruins have scored only five times, with one goal coming at even strength. Entering last night, only four clubs (Atlanta, Chicago, Florida, and Phoenix) had fewer goals than the Bruins.
"It's about determination," Bruins coach Claude Julien said about increasing offensive production after his team's practice yesterday at the Toyota Sports Center. "It's about being willing to bear down on your chances and making those things happen. We've got to go into those tough areas if we want to score goals."
On Wednesday night against Anaheim, the Bruins started with a bang, as Chuck Kobasew recorded the first even-strength goal of the season only 65 seconds into the first period. The Bruins drove the puck into Anaheim's zone and had an effective forecheck going, putting five first-period shots on goalie Ilya Bryzgalov, while limiting the Ducks to six attempts on Tim Thomas.
But Anaheim got its fearsome forecheck into gear in the second period, sending two men in deep to crash the Boston defensemen and hem the puck in the Bruins' zone.
At the same time, the Bruins ran into trouble in the neutral zone, failing to get pucks past the Anaheim bodies and sticks, which resulted in the Ducks tying the game and outshooting Boston, 14-7, in the second period.
"We would have had more scoring chances had we put the puck in deep a little more," said Julien. "We did that early on. We seemed to have some momentum and some chances. But as the game went along, a lot of pucks just barely made it over the blue line. We just weren't getting in deep. It was hard to get anything going.
"They're a team that's extremely good in the neutral zone. That's how they've had success for as far back as the Ottawa series last year. Ottawa didn't want to dump it in, kept turning things over at the blue line, and that cost them."
