Boston Bruins: 7 Players Who Need to Step Up to Repeat in the East

The Boston Bruins have gone five-plus weeks and 17 games without a single, simple set of consecutive wins. They have gone two weeks and six outings without putting an opponent away in regulation.

In those two departments, even the hangover-induced, 3-7-0 stumble through October was not as wretched as this. It took Boston 30 days and 12 contests to kindle its first winning streak of the season, but it is now nursing a 39-day drought that is bound to last no fewer than 43 days and 19 games.

Only two other stretches in the Claude Julien era rival the current hex of inconsistency. During the turbulent 2009-10 season, the Bruins went through one period of 18 games and 41 days and another spanning 18 games and 40 days without back-to-back triumphs.

As was the case that year, a multitude of key injuries are nagging and taxing the depth chart, but there is still no eclipsing the rash of underachievement in every zone and along every line of the rink.

Their November and December, as well as a sliver of January, verify the Bruins’ eligibility to remain in the race for the Eastern Conference title with the regal New York Rangers. But their campaign to retain their title is as good as suspended if everyone does not will his way to a second wind.

Regardless of what general manager Peter Chiarelli can pull off in the week before the trade deadline, the following Bruins need to ice the excuses and use the seven weeks before the playoffs restoring their formidability.

Joe Corvo

After logging two goals and 14 assists in the 33 games prior to Christmas, Corvo has sprinkled a single strike and three helpers in his 24 outings since, going pointless in 21 of them.

And this is somebody who was ostensibly imported over the summer to remedy the toe-curling shortcomings of Tomas Kaberle. This is somebody whose shot-on-net total of 140 is eclipsed by only three teammates in Patrice Bergeron, Zdeno Chara and Tyler Seguin.

The seasoned Corvo needs to relearn how to pass and shoot with maximum assertion on the offensive front and how to handle the puck with delicate confidence in his day job. Fewer giveaways, more spot-on slappers and more playmaking proficiency during even-strength and power-play segments are the least Boston can ask of him in the most meaningful phases of the season.

Chris Kelly

Once the runaway favorite for the Seventh Man Award, only a hurry-up hot streak will salvage Kelly’s shot at the prize that annually rewards a Bruin for exceeding expectations. Only the opposite has held true for him since New Year’s.

Flexibility will be the No. 3 center’s most pivotal asset going forward. Kelly needs to be prepared to play with almost any set of wings, as the overall health and structure of the depth chart remains up in the air.

David Krejci

Krejci’s plus/minus has steadily slid since the calendar morphed into February, and his first point of the month did not arrive until his goal Friday night in Winnipeg.

The mid-December-through-January Krejci, on the other hand, charged up a 5-16-21 scoring log in a span of 18 games.

Were he to virtually Xerox that production rate in the first three rounds of the postseason, Krejci would likely see the likes of traditional linemate Milan Lucic, and other teammates, swell up their own output to healthy heights. In turn, he would hardly be a liability in the event the Bruins fell short of a return trip to the Cup final.

Benoit Pouliot

With Nathan Horton out indefinitely and the usual top-six stand-in Rich Peverley sidelined until late March, now is the time for Pouliot to grow through pain.

If all goes according to plan, the long-underachieving winger will be back on the third line full time before the postseason. By then, Pouliot will need to be at a point where he has whet his blades to a genuine top-six caliber and is willing to keep performing to that standard regardless of his rank on the line chart.

Tyler Seguin

After inserting 17 goals in the first 38 installments of his sophomore surge, Seguin has since receded to his many fits of freshman frostbite with only three strikes over his last 18 games.

Dating back to the Bruins’ first meeting with the Rangers, Seguin’s runaway league-best plus/minus rating has dipped by six to a plus-29.

Last season, Seguin mustered all of one goal and zero assists in the final 19 games of the regular season, beginning Feb. 20 and culminating April 10. He needs to shed his double-runners in a hurry and get back in the chair as Boston’s puck-slinging pilot.

If the Bruins are to pose with the Prince of Wales Trophy again this spring, they must make Seguin the offensive nucleus with about a point-per-game pace throughout the playoffs. But that will only happen if he concocts himself some momentum in the homestretch.

Both Goaltenders

Tim Thomas has had to resort to a shootout for each of his team’s two most recent wins, in part, because he failed to defend initial leads. In his 22 starts prior to Christmas, he posted four shutouts and never allowed more than three goals in a single night.

In 16 appearances since then, Thomas has authorized four or five goals on four occasions and three on another six while posting a sub-.900 save percentage nine times.

Tuukka Rask has authorized three or four regulation goals in each of his last four starts and is 0-4-1 in his last five appearances ever since the Rangers snapped his personal seven-game winning streak.

As a tandem, Rask and Thomas have laid seven shutouts on the year, but none since Rask stifled the Calgary Flames as part of a 9-0 rout Jan. 5. Nearly a quarter of the schedule has since passed and the Bruins have floundered in a 9-9-1 funk.

Of all the necessary means to replenish Boston’s winning ways, none hold more sway than refilling the all but arid moats in front of the net. As soon as both goaltenders get back to a Vezina caliber, an inherently sound squad will have its nightly shot at a two-point package.