The NHL season is a grind, especially in this year’s shortened 56-game slate. Although it is not as long as usual, the NHL is packing in more games per week for each team. With as many as four games a week, with many on back-to-back nights, players have little opportunity to rest. This makes it more difficult to sustain high levels of play for an extended period of time. Some can do it better than others. Each week, we will take a look at players on the Boston Bruins who are on a hot or cold streak. This week we look at Matt Grzelcyk and Nick Ritchie.
Hot and Cold Streaks
Hot Streak: Matt Grzelcyk
Grzelcyk was our hot streak pick last week and he finds himself in this slot again as he has continued to post impressive numbers. In three games he tallied three points, one goal and two assists. The goal and on assist came on the powerplay. As we highlighted in last week’s hot and cold streaks, Grzelcyk’s skills are well suited to fill Torey Krug’s old slot on that unit.
The powerplay has been highly effective this season, ranking 10th in the NHL, converting on 25 percent of their opportunities. In the three games the team played last week, they converted on 30.8 percent of powerplay chances. The Bruins had a total of 13 powerplays and scored on four of them. Considering that Grzelcyk had two powerplay points this week, it’s safe to say that he is an important cog in that machine.
The coaching staff has taken notice of Grzelcyk’s play in recent days as well. He has seen an impressive uptick in ice time per game. He averaged 22:01 of ice time in the last week. If his play continues to trend in this direction, he is not only setting the team up for success in the short term, but also for himself long term.
Cold Streak: Nick Ritchie
Nick Ritchie started off this season hotter than a sunny day in Texas in the middle of July. While some may have seen his early-season performance as unsustainable, he has cooled off more than he should have. He hasn’t posted a single point in the last two weeks, much less this week. While players get hot to start the year and eventually cool off, it initially appeared like the former first-round draft pick had figured out how to use his talents in the most effective way possible. It is now evident that he just got hot and still needs more growth to become a consistent scorer.
Ritchie’s cold streak is not due to a lack of use from the coaching staff. In fact, Bruce Cassidy has shown his confidence in Ritchie to turn things around. The amount of ice time he has gotten in the last week shows that. Ritchie ranks sixth amongst Bruins forwards in average time on ice with 15:52 over the last week. He is still being utilized and is seen as an important piece of the team. But considering the lack of consistent secondary scoring coming from Boston this year, Cassidy may just be praying Ritchie finds his groove again.
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