WASHINGTON, D.C.The Bruins count on plenty of offense from their top forward lines, and its glaringly obvious when they dont produce.
Milan Lucic, David Krejci and Rich Peverley are expected to provide offense for the Bs even without one of their regular cogsNathan Horton out with a concussionbut didnt even produce a single registered shot in Saturday afternoons 2-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Krejci thought he fired a shot on net in the third period and it looked like Rich Peverley had one in the first that was never officially counted, but either way there was far too much passive play from an explosive group. Peverley found himself on the bench at the end of the third period when Claude Julien shortened things up, and both Lucic and Krejci vowed things will be different Sunday afternoon against the Washington Capitals at the Verizon Center.
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Krejci wouldnt even look at the scoresheet after Saturdays game because he was so frustrated at his play, and he knows that his line needs to pick it up even if there were signs of encouragement in the loss to the Pens.
I didnt look at the sheet after the game. I was really upset, admitted Krejci. It was a frustrating game for us yesterday. It wasnt fun. We want to make sure that doesnt happen again.
Id like to forget everything about the way things went yesterday. I want to go out there todayand not just today, but every gameand not have that same feeling that I had yesterday again. Its a good thing when the defenseman can get shots through, but its our job to be in front of the net picking for rebounds. Anything can happen, you know? So we need to get more involved as forwards. Its not going to happen very often that you score four or five goals from the blue line, so as forwards we need to get more shots. We need to stop passing up shots. Once you get it, you need to take it.
While Krejci had one of his worst games of the season against the Penguins, the Bruins did start to show signs as a team that theyre beginning pulling out of their recent funk. One thing that would help tremendously: if Krejci and his linemates can get back on track against a Capitals team that will be just as hungry as Pittsburgh was on Saturday afternoon.