![\"Ottawa](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/ottawa-senators-v-boston-bruins-boston-massachusetts-october-05-jj-peterka.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS – OCTOBER 05: JJ Peterka #10 of the Boston Bruins looks on during the first period of the game against the Ottawa Senators at TD Garden on October 05, 2026 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Maddie Meyer\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
The Boston Bruins\u2019 power play has been abysmal through the first four games of the season, and there is no question about it.<\/p>\n
Boston\u2019s power play went 0-for-4 against the Ottawa Senators, putting them at 0-for-10 for the year. Worse, Tim Stutzle scored a short-handed goal<\/a> on Boston\u2019s first power-play opportunity. Then three seconds after it ended, he struck again, giving Ottawa an early 2-0 lead.<\/p>\n It shows that Boston\u2019s power play isn\u2019t just failing to score. Now, it\u2019s hurting them. Look no further than the fact that the Bruins lost on Monday night by three goals. Two of which came as a result of its own power play miscues.<\/p>\n Bruins\u2019 Power Play Is Still Searching For Its First Goal<\/p>\n Boston entered Monday\u2019s game 0-for-6 on the man advantage. Head coach Marco Sturm barely had a response to his team\u2019s performance at 5-on-4.<\/p>\n Via Joe McDonald of NHL.com<\/a>, Sturm said,<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a good question. I really don\u2019t know. I can\u2019t give you an answer right now \u2014 honestly. We thought putting those guys back together because they had good chemistry, and we were a top 10 power play last year, (would) give them a little bit of comfort, but it kind of went the other way.<\/p>\n \u201cHonestly, I have no idea why. I really don\u2019t. I\u2019ve got to look at some clips. As a group, you have to ask yourself, too, the guys who were on the ice on the power play, and as a group we have to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s an issue Sturm would rather figure out sooner rather than later. If Boston keeps hurting itself on the power play, it will cost them games they otherwise could have won.<\/p>\n Losing by three goals is one thing, but what if an errant power play leads to the deciding goal? That\u2019s something the Bruins need to avoid in an Atlantic Division that could have seven teams capable of making the playoffs. And there is only room for five, tops.<\/p>\n Special Teams Is Becoming An Early Problem For The Bruins<\/p>\n The Bruins\u2019 special teams issues aren\u2019t relegated to the power play. Boston\u2019s penalty kill was perfect on Monday night, but they entered the contest 4-for-7, good for just a 57.1 penalty-kill percentage.<\/p>\n The upside for the penalty kill was its stellar play on Monday. But the question, however, is whether Boston can keep the momentum going when they are a man down. The penalty kill also struggled last season, fending off opposing power plays just 76.98 percent of the time. That was well below the NHL average of 78.89 percent.<\/p>\n As for the power play? Boston boasted one of the better units in the league. In 2025-26, the Bruins converted 23.40 percent of their opportunities, over two percent more than the league average of 21.11.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not like this unit hasn\u2019t succeeded recently. It\u2019s all about getting that groove back that the Bruins\u2019 power play had last season. Boston has also struggled to score at 5-on-5. The Bruins are converting just 7.0 percent of their shots on goal despite 8.9 expected goals for the season.<\/p>\n They have converted just 4.3 percent of their high-danger chances and are 1-for-22 overall. If the Bruins want a repeat of 2025-26 and not a repeat of that disastrous 2024-25 season, they must figure out how to get consistent on special teams and start scoring in all phases of the game.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tTodd Matthews<\/a> Todd Matthews is a veteran sportswriter with years of experience covering the NHL, NFL, and other major sports. His background includes team-specific coverage, breaking news, analysis, roster developments, player trends, and league-wide storylines. He joined Heavy in 2026 and previously wrote for FanSided. More about Todd Matthews<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS – OCTOBER 05: JJ Peterka #10 of the Boston Bruins looks on during the first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":680186,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5099],"tags":[154,95,5132,530,5,4],"class_list":["post-680185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boston-bruins","tag-boston","tag-boston-bruins","tag-bostonbruins","tag-bruins","tag-hockey","tag-nhl"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/117394601976096984","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=680185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680185\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/680186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=680185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=680185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=680185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}