Takeaways: Boston's Offensive Struggles Continue in 3-1 Loss to Montréal

The Fleet's road struggles continued in the loss to the Victoire.

Takeaways: Boston's Offensive Struggles Continue in 3-1 Loss to Montréal
A bird's eye view of Place Bell as Boston and Montréal prepare for a faceoff. Photo courtesy of the PWHL.

The Boston Fleet dropped their second straight game in regulation Monday night, falling to the Montréal Victoire 3-1. They sit last in the PWHL with six points, while the Victoire took over first place with 13.

Goal Rundown

Knight looks up while carrying the puck. She is preparing to move it. She is wearing a white away uniform.
Hilary Knight prepares to move the puck against Montréal. Photo courtesy of the PWHL.

Claire Dalton went end-to-end and fought through pressure to cut in front of the net and reach around Emma Söderberg to open the scoring.

In the second period, Hilary Knight tipped a Hannah Bilka feed past Ann-Renée Desbiens to tie the game. She's now part of a nine-way tie for second place in the PWHL with three goals on the season.

Then, 30 seconds into a Boston power play, Kristin O’Neill got a shorthanded breakaway and potted a jailbreak goal to retake the lead for Montréal.

Just 1:15 later, Anna Wilgren sent her first PWHL goal past a heavily screened Söderberg to make it 3-1 Montréal and cap off the scoring.

In goal, Söderberg made 28 saves in her season debut, while Desbiens made 18 en route to her first win against Boston.

Takeaways

From her net, Söderberg looks to her left and watches a play develop. She is crouched as she tries to seal all gaps. She is wearing a white away uniform and her green pads and mask.
Emma Söderberg watches a play develop. Photo courtesy of the PWHL.
  1. The Fleet continued their struggles generating offense.

The Fleet’s offensive struggles popped back up last game against the Sceptres, and they continued against the Victoire. They managed only 19 shots in the game and just two in the third period, neither of which were high-quality. You won't win many hockey games with that kind of offensive output. They need to get more quality shots on goal and also get to the gritty areas for rebounds.

  1. The physicality picked up right where they left it in the playoffs.

These two teams really don’t like each other. They picked the physicality up from right where they left in the playoffs, registering a combined 24 hits while making it feel like there were many more. It led to several penalties, with Montréal getting two physicality-related penalties (including a five-minute major and game misconduct to Catherine Dubois for a head check on Megan Keller) and Boston earning four. However, when it stayed inside the lines, it made for a highly entertaining hockey game that injected even more juice into an already-raucous sold-out crowd. In many ways, it felt like a playoff game even though Boston didn’t have their a-game, so one can't help but wonder what a game between these two clubs would look like when both teams bring their best. We may find that out soon enough, as they meet again on January 5th when the PWHL Takeover Tour kicks off in Seattle, WA.

  1. Another game, another Boston penalty-related kerfuffle.

The Fleet started last night’s game strong and were outshooting the Victoire 4-0 when they took their first penalty. Then, back-to-back Sophie Shirley penalties allowed the Montréal offense to roar to life. The Victoire landed five shots on goal over the two minors and got numerous other great looks that didn’t register as shots. The Fleet got some shots here and there throughout the game but never quite recovered while Montréal racked up 11 high-danger/slot shots (and numerous others close by). The Victoire took five penalties (including a major) to the Fleet's four minors, but unlike the Fleet, their power play gave them life despite not scoring (more on that shortly). Penalties were not the only reason the Fleet lost, but it would’ve been nice to see how things went without Boston gifting Montréal all the momentum with those trips to the box.

  1. Boston’s power play cost them.

Heading into this game, Boston’s power play ranked first in the league with a 40% success rate on ten opportunities, while Montréal’s was dead last at just 9.5% on 21 chances. Montréal’s looked better tonight despite not scoring, while Boston’s was disjointed and even let up a jailbreak goal when the game was tied. The Fleet had never felt particularly close to scoring on any of their power plays, but the worst was their third-period-opening five-minute one where they managed just one shot that came in the final 10 seconds. It’s typically difficult to start periods on the power play, but that’s inexcusable. A 40% conversion rate was not sustainable, but the power play at least needed to create more chances.

“I think we fought the puck a little bit,” said Boston head coach Courtney Kessel in the postgame press conference. “I think we tried to do too much and we didn’t keep it simple like we’ve been doing the last five games.”

Boston’s power play was abysmal last season and part of the reason they struggled so much to score, so they’ll be hoping this is just a one-game blip and not the start of a downward spiral.

  1. This loss continues a concerning trend of road struggles for the Fleet.

Last but not least, the Fleet have not managed a point on the road this season, let alone a win. Three games is a small sample size, but they have yet to maintain a full 60-minute effort on the road and have struggled to generate offense in every road game (managing just four goals and 66 shots), so it's becoming a concerning trend. They still have four games left on this road trip, so they need to figure it out quickly before things spiral out of control.

The Fleet are back in action Thursday night when they travel to Minnesota to take on the Frost. Puck drop is set for 7:30 p.m. ET at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, MN, and you can find the game on NESN, FanDuel Sports Network North, TSN, the PWHL’s Youtube channel, and thepwhl.com.