Boston Bruins: No Surprise Tyler Seguin, Brad Marchand Are Leading Scorers

In the aftermath of Wednesday night’s 3-2 shortcoming against the Carolina Hurricanes, the Boston Bruins are off to their worst four-game start in Claude Julien’s five years behind the bench at 1-3-0.

Aside from the record, this need not come as much of a stunner. Each loss has been decided by a single goal, meaning with just one more serendipitous bounce or opportunistic pounce, the Bruins would have at least one or two more points by now.

But the two principle reasons Wednesday’s falter as well as last Thursday’s 2-1 slip-up against Philadelphia were one-goal decisions are the sophomore scorers, Tyler Seguin and Brad Marchand. While the rest of the returning champions are languishing, these two are breaking into the new campaign with apparent facility.

In Wednesday’s third period, Seguin and Marchand each whittled a two-goal deficit in half by smuggling a searing snap shot past stingy Hurricanes stopper Cam Ward. With that, they each have four points on the year, twice the output of any of their more seasoned teammates.

Could this continue? Can either youngster maintain his point-per-game median between now and the final regular-season siren on April 7?

The prospect of an 80-plus-point season is more than a few strides short of likely for any Bruin. But Marchand and Seguin are the best bets to shoot for Boston’s highest bar, and their continued consistency might be the X-factor in keeping the Bruins a legitimate threat throughout the race for home ice and into the 2012 postseason.

With so little offseason ruffling to their roster, the Bruins once again boast a lineup that is more balanced than it is star-studded. So long as everybody perks up and starts pitching in, they ought to be in a favorable position even if the top goal-getter goes nowhere beyond 30 strikes and the top two point-scorers amass 62.

At the moment, of course, the much-heralded hangover is conspicuously present on the better part of head coach Claude Julien’s bench. But as some have predicted, this author included, the likes of Seguin are among the least symptomatic so far.

And while Marchand expended more energy and produced more results in last year’s regular season and postseason, the oomph he has packed early in 2011-12 is not so unforeseen either. His comparative youth helps, but he also has a new, well-documented contract to justify. He has more stripes still to earn.

So of course, since starting off the year 1-for-1 in the power-play department, the Bruins have spilled every 5-on-4 opportunity that has followed. But just as naturally and tellingly, that successful conversion last Thursday featured Seguin sending a diagonal pass through neutral ice to Marchand, who swooped in to beat Flyers goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov.

On Wednesday, with David Krejci injured, Julien chose not to make any voluntary tweaks to his depth chart. He merely elevated Seguin to fill the hole between wingers Nathan Horton and Milan Lucic, the two coldest constituents of Boston’s top six.

As it happened, Seguin would help Horton hatch his point column goose egg by taking his pass and lashing it to the roof over Ward’s right shoulder, making it a 2-1 Carolina advantage with 15:53 to spare.

An ice chip of irony lies within that anecdote. Horton was statistically rewarded when Seguin scored on Wednesday after he continuously failed to up the playmaker Krejci’s assist total during the past week’s homestand. 

By the same token, once their elders thaw out, Seguin and Marchand should see their own productivity rate stay where it is or even increase. That is assuming they do not subconsciously ease off the accelerator themselves.

How soon and to what extent the more seasoned Bruins start clicking is another matter. Other than Marchand, only linemate Rich Peverley has more than one goal to his credit, and those were both collected in the same game.

Besides Seguin and all of the Patrice Bergeron-Marchand-Peverley line, only defensemen Joe Corvo and Adam McQuaid have multiple points through four games. And Corvo, being one of two offseason acquisitions and coming from a playoff no-show in Carolina, didn’t go through the same grind as his new colleagues did last spring.

The first four games of the season are already proof that the likes of Krejci, Lucic, Horton and other leaned-on Boston skaters are at risk of seeing their total output slide by at least a handful of points compared to last year.

Krejci ought to be back before long, but his days with Lucic and Horton ought to be numbered.

The only active line with a fair shot to stay intact is Marchand’s, and while the 50-point range is a reasonable request for Bergeron and Peverley, their right-winger should be shooting for at least 60.

In an active poll on the team’s official Web site, Bruins fans overwhelmingly see Marchand reaching 20 goals before any of his teammates. At the last check, he had more than 36 percent of the vote.

Seguin came in at a distant second with 16 percent of the vote. But the No. 2 choice in the 2010 NHL draft should be closing that gap, because regardless of whom he is paired with, he ought to be regularly productive this season.

He is showing signs of that already.