The new lines featured Brad Marchand on the fourth line with Gregory Campbell and Shawn Thornton.
View full sizeWhere have you been Tyler Seguin?It appears that Boston Bruins coach Claude Julien is taking drastic measures to help rejuvenate his team's offensive playoff slump against the Washington Capitals.
Following a 2-1 Game 4 loss Thursday at the Verizon Center, which featured a 44-save performance by Caps rookie goalie Braden Holtby to tie the best of seven series 2-2, the Bruins rolled out with some major line changes at practice Friday afternoon at TD Garden.
And it wasn't a simple switch of centermen.
According to the Bruins official Twitter account, forward Tyler Seguin skated on third line while forward Brad Marchand was bumped all the way down to the Merlot line.
Here's a glance of the adjustments:
Lucic-Krejci-Rolston
Paille-Bergeron-Peverley
Pouliot-Kelly-Seguin
Marchand-Campbell-Thornton
"Making line changes, that’s a part of trying to find solutions and it’s as simple as that," Julien said after practice. "You’ve got to mix up guys who are not getting the results that we’d like to. So, you’re trying to make changes that will maybe spark that part of our game."
Through four games the Bruins have only managed to score seven goals. In three of those they've scored once.
That's not going to win hockey games unless the team expects veteran netminder Tim Thomas to post a shutout every night, which is not realistic.
Though it looks strange, the demotions of Tyler Seguin and Brad Marchand isn't surprising since both have been ghosts. Neither have contributed a point - along with five other Bruins - and continue to search for that breakout game.
Brian Rolston, Chris Kelly and defenseman Zdeno Chara lead the Bruins with three points apiece (one goal, two assists).
The Bruins were heavy hitting with net front presence and battle drills, which have been lacking all series and a big reason why they haven't been able to capitalize on Holtby.
But the difference-maker Thursday was special teams as Capital forward Alexander Semin scored a power-play goal at 18:43 to give his team a 2-1 lead on a questionable Patrice Bergeron hooking penalty.
Boston only had one power-play opportunity, which came at 10:09 in the third period and wasn't able to convert to extend the drought to 0 for 12.
"If you’re disappointed in (Thursday's) power play, you only had one," Julien said. "So, it’s hard to evaluate and start jumping all over the power play. Again, I think the area that you’ve got to look at is the area that you play the most at, and that’s 5 on 5 and we’re not scoring. So, we’ve made changes in our power play so now we’ve got to give it a chance to showcase it."
How will the Bruins respond Saturday? It's now a best of 3 series as Game 6 and Game 7 (if necessary) are scheduled for Sunday and Wednesday.