With Charlie McAvoy out with a lower-body injury for another three weeks, the Bruins were hoping that the rest of their defense would be able to hold down the fort. However, the Bruins’ blue line is struggling without their star rookie.
Boston may have finished their homestand with a perfect 6-0 record, but make no mistake, the Bruins won those games with elite offense and some great goals from Brad Marchand.
In the teams’ four full games without Charlie McAvoy, they’ve allowed a whopping 14 goals, half of them coming against a bad Chicago Blackhawks team.
It’s easy to pin all of the blame on the goaltenders, but they’ve been forced to stand on their heads and make some big plays far too often.
To be fair, Brandon Carlo has filled in decently for McAvoy on the top pair and has played pretty well alongside Zdeno Chara.
The rest of the blue line, however, has suddenly fallen off the face of the earth.
Torey Krug specifically is struggling mightily. He recently scored his 50th (and 51st) goal of his career, however, he is still -4 over the last three games despite the offense’s success while he is on the ice.
The Bruins still hold the second-best goals-against average in the NHL, however, they better hope McAvoy will be ready to go for the playoffs.
