The numbers are beginning to tell the story with the Bruins offense this season, and this page-turner isn’t pretty.

People will point to the absence of Marc Savard to explain the shortcomings of a team that can’t score during 5-on-5 play, and really, really, really has no shot at lighting the lamp once it sets out on the power play.

But it goes well beyond not having Savard or bruising, human space-maker Milan Lucic in the lineup for much of the next month — if not longer. There are brief glimmers of offense as attested by Marco Sturm’s first-period storming of the Detroit net in Boston’s 2-0 loss Tuesday night at Joe Louis Arena — but Sturm couldn’t finish off the play against a diving, flopping Chris Osgood after Patrice Bergeron’s original long shot from the side wall created the B’s offensive opportunity.

Savard said earlier this season after a loss that “We’re all Swedes. No Finnish for us tonight.” That’s exactly what’s been going on all season for a team that simply doesn’t have all of the pieces in places to finish off offensive plays and turn loose pucks, off chances and slight openings by the defense into actual bona fide goals.

The Bruins were second in the NHL in goals scored last season, but that seems like a long time ago in a hockey galaxy far, far away, with the B’s now sitting 27th in the NHL with 2.21 goals scored per game — and ranking 29th in the league with a toothless power play that’s 2-for-44 outside of a four-goal performance against a reeling Hurricanes team in the second game of the season.

Who are the culprits, you ask?

Dennis Wideman hasn’t registered a point in eight games after piling up 50 points last season in a breakout campaign. Sturm hasn’t scored a goal since Oct. 8 and is on a pace for 12 goals this season after he was expected to fill the void of Phil Kessel’s 36 goals all by himself. Michael Ryder hasn’t scored a goal in six games and is on pace for 18 goals this season after potting nearly 30 last season. Forty-one-year-old Mark Recchi has one goal in his last nine games and is on pace for 12 goals this season after nothing nearly 30 last season while splitting the campaign between Tampa Bay and Boston.

Judging by past performance, the B’s should be a better offensive team than they’re showing — but in the words of a legendary football coach, “You are what your record says you are.” And the record says that Boston is a bad offensive club right now in major need of a goal-scoring transfusion.

These are Boston’s trigger men now that Kessel has picked up his skating and shooting toys and taken them to the Maple Leafs for $27 million. Perhaps there’s no way the Bruins were ever going to pay that kind of ransom for a 22-year-old scorer with some major blemishes on his game, but a few things were clear watching Kessel buzz around with 10 shots on goal against the Lightning Tuesday night.

The Bruins don’t have a forward capable of consistently putting that kind of pressure on an opposing team’s defense and goaltender, and there isn’t anyone with enough of a shoot-first mentality to throw up 10 shots in even an overtime game.
The Bruins established an identity as a deep offensive team capable of overwhelming other teams with wave after wave of pressure and good transitional hockey, but the B’s simply don’t have that this season. Things have slowed down for them, and they appear to be missing one large game-breaker much more than ever thought possible.

With images of Kessel buzzing around the Air Canada Centre dancing through everyone’s head, here are two other things learned during Tuesday night’s second straight shutout loss:

SHAWN THORNTON DID EVERYTHING IN HIS POWER TO CAUSE A SPARK

The B’s fourth-liner takes pride in his ability to change momentum and light a fire under his teammates with energy and perhaps a little on-ice brutality from time to time, and Thornton took it upon himself to nudge his teammates Tuesday night.

Thornton reeled off a game-high nine hits and punished the Red Wings defenseman, including sacred cow Nicklas Lidstrom after Thornton clobbered the Norris Trophy winner behind Detroit’s net during the second period. Boston’s bare-knuckled brawler also finished with a shot on net, and it was telling that B’s coach Claude Julien refused to shorten his lines while struggling for goals late in the third period.

Julien continued to roll Thornton and Steve Begin out on the ice while the duo continued giving out an honest effort and exerting some kind of pressure on Osgood and the Wings defense.

JULIEN IS MAKING SOME CHANGES, BUT TO NO AVAIL

The B’s coach tried to shake things up heading into Tuesday night’s game, reuniting Bergeron and Sturm on a line with Recchi. Julien also pieced back together last year’s explosive David Krejci-Blake Wheeler-Ryder line in hopes they would bottle a little bit of last season’s scoring magic.

On an increasingly pungent power play, the B’s dropped Zdeno Chara to the second unit and introduced Matt Hunwick to some power-play time while also pairing together Bergeron and Krejci on the power play’s top unit. It didn’t work on Tuesday night as the man advantage went 0-for-3 and extended its current run of futility to an 0-for-17. Perhaps worst of all, the B’s managed only two shots on net during those opportunities and essentially gave away one of those power plays toward the end of the second period.

The B’s inability to capture momentum in a game when given a power play for their hard work can’t be overstated, and they essentially look paralyzed with their quarterback (Savard) missing from the lineup. They’ve dropped to 1-for-20 on the power play since Savard went on the long-term injured reserve seven games ago, and now sit dead last with an 11.5 percent success rate (6-for-52) this season.