So far, Bruins coach Jim Montgomery has no answers to his team's stumbling blocks

BOSTON – It's not coach Jim Montgomery's fault that David Pastrňák, Brad Marchand, Elias Lindholm, Pavel Zacha and Charlie McAvoy, the Boston Bruins' top five offensive players, did nothing for 97 seconds on a five-on-three power play The first hour on Tuesday.

It's not Montgomery's fault that Mason Lohrei fumbled pucks in the defensive zone so regularly in the first period that he had to bench the second-year pro for the rest of the period.

It's not Montgomery's fault that Marchand deflected a puck so badly during a power play in the third period that the coach covered his face with his notes.

But it is Montgomery's responsibility to fix the numerous leaks the Bruins have uncovered this season, most recently in Tuesday's 2-0 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers.

It looks like a monumental task.

From start to finish, the Bruins put on a minor league level performance. They put pucks into skates. They screwed up access to the offensive zone. They made weak clearing passes that achieved little from the rush. They barely made it online.

The result could have been worse. Joonas Korpisalo, who made his third start, scored two goals from the field. In the first half, Korpisalo parried a close-range chance from Bobby Brink at the last moment. Later in the first period, Scott Laughton and Garnet Hathaway went to the ice for a two-on-one shorthanded attack. When Laughton delivered a slot line pass to Hathaway, Korpisalo slid from right to left and parried the former Bruin's attempt.

What the Bruins played on Tuesday was not up to NHL standards.

“We don’t make plays,” Montgomery said. “We don’t do enough to create dangerous scoring chances. Whether it’s the desire to get into those areas or not the right game plan, we all share the blame for not getting a win tonight.”

The Bruins' top six, including Charlie Coyle, struggled to get anything going against the Flyers. (Brian Fluharty/Imagn Images)

Consider the opponent. Samuel Ersson, Philadelphia's goaltender, entered the night with an .872 save percentage in six appearances. According to Moneypuck, Ersson was -6.1 goals above expectations.

The Bruins gave Ersson a leave of absence.

During 4:48 minutes of total power play time, the Bruins only put two pucks on Ersson. Because of the two-man advantage, they chose to remain stationary in their spread formation rather than move, creating gaps and forcing the Flyers to chase. Montgomery's subsequent changes — replacing Zacha at net with Justin Brazeau and starting a third-period power play with the No. 2 unit — accomplished nothing.

“On any team, your best players, your star players, have to carry the load of the load offensively,” Montgomery said. “These are the players who are on the power play. At the moment the offensive is not happening for us.”

Some of this is expected. The Bruins are missing a winger in the top 6 following the departure of Jake DeBrusk. Montgomery has cycled through virtually the entire roster at the No. 2 right wing: Brazeau, Morgan Geekie, Trent Frederic, Matt Poitras. On Thursday, even Mark Kastelic, normally the fourth-line center, got a ride with Marchand and Charlie Coyle.

But missing DeBrusk doesn't explain the complete disappearance of Geekie, who has zero goals and one assist in nine games. That doesn't explain why Marchand, Coyle and Zacha, all top-six forwards, score zero five-on-five goals among them. Even without DeBrusk, the Bruins should be better than 14.3 percent on the power play.

It appears that the underperformance is present across the board.

“It seems to be a variety of things,” Montgomery said when asked why the Bruins couldn’t build on their overtime win over the Toronto Maple Leafs. “Some guys are still struggling in terms of their confidence and their ability to handle the puck smoothly.”

The Bruins are not as slow as they look. But her unstable confidence leads to indecision. They take too long to make passes, shoot pucks and bring down the net. Everything is over.

“If you have problems on offense, maybe you just keep the stick,” said Hampus Lindholm. “Usually when you're on a hot streak you just take the puck and snap it straight away. You don't think. This game becomes a lot easier if you just use your intuition.”

Ten games is not a small selection. The 4-5-1 Bruins are what they are, and that's not good enough.

(Top photo: Brian Fluharty / Imagn Images)