Don Sweeney Highlights Key Areas Where Bruins Need To Improve

The Bruins made multiple franchise-altering moves Friday, and they’re prepared for a new direction for the team.

Brad Marchand headlined a busy NHL trade deadline for Boston. Multiple core pieces were dealt, and the Black and Gold received interesting compensation that could benefit them in the future.

General manager Don Sweeney offered insight on the moves and noted that he still believes the Bruins are a contender and aren’t in rebuild mode. There were key areas of the team that he’d like to see improve.

“Well, our power play has struggled all year, and that’s a problem, so we have to address that, but that’s both with personnel and systematically, maybe, and make some adjustments there,” Sweeney told reporters Friday, per a team-provided transcript. “So that’s been an area that’s put some stress on the overall offensive production side of things, which is an area we knew was going to be potentially challenged and if we stayed healthy. Now, we set out the fact that every guy that maybe hit some high sides, we didn’t predict that they were going to, but we were below that in those areas. Now, defensively, is where the concerns started to come into play, that we were not as tight as what we have been in the past. And good teams get through that. You win in those situations, and we have given it up in those situations.

“… So that’s both personnel-driven, that’s addressing some of the deficiencies we have. You know, if we don’t have enough scoring, can we not extend the lead? A power play has momentum in a game that says, hey, we can put this away. And it took away at times. And it’s not just on the power play. Our penalty killing hasn’t been quite as good. So, you know, there are areas that we need, we had under performance, and we have roster areas that we needed to address. And that starts with me, and the other areas that the players themselves have to take some (responsibility) and they have, they’ve taken ownership that they haven’t played quite as well. But, you know, the end of the day, we weren’t going to just roll it back. And that’s probably the message, like we needed to turn a page in some regard and do a better job. And that’s what we’ll do.”

The Bruins were 29th in power play percentage and 20th in penalty kill percentage after the NHL trade deadline. They’re also 10th in goal against, and those factors are part of why they have a long-shot chance at making the playoffs. There were moments of uncharacteristic play that injuries played a part in, and Sweeney the Bruins front office will make efforts to rectify those mistakes and turn around the franchise.