When it comes to the Bruins and special teams this postseason, everyone knows that the power play has been a huge lightning rod for criticism. With only one 5-on-4 goal through the team’s first 11 playoff games, it’s been easy to see the power play has been far from a specialty for the Bruins’ special teams. 

Yet while all of the attention has been placed on the power play — which will face a stingy Tampa team that’s killed off 94.4 percent of penalties this postseason — the Bruins need far from just a solid showing on the man advantage to keep up with the Lightning in the Eastern Conference finals. 

In going up against Tampa Bay, the B’s are facing a special-teams monster. Not only will they make scoring on the power play hard for the Bruins, but it’s the Lightning’s power play could put the B’s in a tough position. Though Boston was able to to kill off all but one of their 14 penalties vs. Tampa Bay in the regular season, Guy Boucher’s squad is the only team remaining that has scored more than 25 percent of the time on the power play this postseason (26.7 percent). As a result, Boston’s skaters will have to be disciplined, and the penalty kill will have to be ready.

“They have a lot of skill over there. Their power play has been great all year. It's a deadly weapon for them, and they use it to their advantage,” said Bruins forward Brad Marchand, who finished tied for third in the league with five shorthanded goals in the regular season. “We have to make sure we're ready for that. Everyone's going to have to play their role, get ready to block some shots and play hard on the PK because it's going to be a battle.”

In the second round, the Bruins killed off 12 of 14 penalties against a pretty wretched Flyers power play. But they know that it will be a tougher challenge against the Lightning — they’ll need to limit the power plays for Tampa Bay, whose 49 opportunities this postseason lead all teams. When the B’s do find themselves down a man, they’ll have their hands full with the likes of Martin St. Louis (three power-play goals this postseason), Vincent Lecavalier, Steven Stamkos and defenseman Pavel Kubina (two power-play goals apiece). Kubina is recovering from a concussion but could return at some point during the series. 

“Discipline is always going to be the key word that every team is always going to use in the playoffs obviously, but there’s going to be penalties,” Claude Julien said. “In a series there always is. Our [penalty kill] is going to have to come up big for us and we know that. Their power play has been pretty good and they’ve got some pretty highly skilled players on those power plays that brings a lot, whether it’s shots, whether it’s playmaking, whether it’s good presence in the front of the net. They seem to have that going very well for them. So PK is going to be important. And at the same time I think our power play, if it continues to play like it did in the last couple of games hopefully that becomes a positive factor for us as well.”

Adding to the challenge for the Bruins is the fact that they’ll be without one of their best penalty killers in Patrice Bergeron while the center recovers from a concussion suffered in Game 4 of the semifinals. With Bergeron expected to miss at least the beginning of the conference finals, the B’s are likely to turn to David Krejci to take those minutes. The PK is nothing new to Krejci, though he spent much less time killing penalties this year than in seasons past. 

“There is no doubt David Krejci has been a pretty good penalty killer and obviously we have tried to, since we have a lot of penalty killers, tried to save him more for the offensive side of our game,” Julien said. “We are able to come back with him after killing a penalty, his line has been coming out, stuff like that. So you have to use David on the penalty kill and that’s things you have to adjust with. Mark Recchi has been able to bail us out too in regards to that. So we are going to have to utilize certain guys. And depending on how many penalties we get, [Daniel] Paille and [Gregory] Campbell can almost, when I say double shift, start it, get a rest and go back out there again.”

Whoever is out there for the B’s on the penalty kill, they won’t have an easy time. Consider that one St. Louis has more power play goals this postseason than the Bruins do as a team. Yet if the B's are able to negate a power play that has brought the Lightning big success this postseason, it could be a big determining factor in which way this series sways.