B's need production from third and fourth lines

There’s a first time for everything, and that’s not always a good thing.

Leaving room for an asterisk, statistics show that through Game 1 of their second-round playoff series against the Lightning, the Bruins had a 5-0 playoff record when their top forward line generated at least one goal. (The one slight exception was Game 4 against the Maple Leafs, a 3-1 win in which Riley Nash filled in for the injured Patrice Bergeron between Brad Marchand.) The [...]

There’s a first time for everything, and that’s not always a good thing.

Leaving room for an asterisk, statistics show that through Game 1 of their second-round playoff series against the Lightning, the Bruins had a 5-0 playoff record when their top forward line generated at least one goal. (The one slight exception was Game 4 against the Maple Leafs, a 3-1 win in which Riley Nash filled in for the injured Patrice Bergeron between Brad Marchand.) The B’s, conversely, were 0-3 when the top line was shut out.

That changed on Monday night at Amalie Arena. The Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak line generated two goals, but the B’s lost, 4-2, to drop into a 1-1 tie in the series.

Care to guess what one of the keys will be in Game 3 on Wednesday night at TD Garden?

“The guys that have struggled to score so far — I guess you call them our third and fourth lines — they have to win more pucks,” said Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy, who gave his players Tuesday off and spoke to the media via a conference call. “They’re the ones that haven’t been able to get much puck possession and start funneling pucks [to the net].”

The Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak trio, a staggering 12-33 — 45 over the Bruins’ nine playoff games, did get some significant second-line support in Game 7 against the Leafs, in which rookie winger Jake DeBrusk scored twice and center David Krejci contributed three assists. That line also scored the decisive goal in Game 1 against the Lightning on Saturday, when Rick Nash stretched the Bruins’ lead to 3-1 halfway through the second period of a series-opening 6-2 win.

Since a strong start to the postseason, though, nobody on the Tim Schaller-Sean Kuraly-Noel Acciari fourth line has scored a point in the last four games, and the third line — left wing Danton Heinen, center Riley Nash and right wing David Backes — has been virtually silent since the playoffs began: All have been held to a single even-strength point. (Backes has scored two power-play goals.)

“Backes had a couple of really good looks [in Game 2],” Cassidy said. “Fourth line, not as much.

“That’s the long and short of it. You need to win the puck and you have to find a way to get it to the danger areas and get bodies there. It sounds simple, but that’s generally how it works, and we haven’t won enough pucks.”

The Bruins actually haven’t been all that proficient when they have had the puck, either: Through two games, they’ve attempted 75 shots, only 44 of which have reached Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy. The Lightning launched 78 shots in Game 1 alone; they’re now up to 132 for the series, and 67 of them have reached Tuukka Rask.

The B’s have given up several potential shooting opportunities to make an extra move or an extra pass, and the passes haven’t always been on target. Even the top line hasn’t been exempt there: Turnovers led to two of the goals scored by the Lightning line of Ondrej Palat, Brayden Point and Tyler Johnson, which was a collective minus-13 in Game 1 as Bergeron’s line figured in three 5-on-5 goals.

“If you don’t manage the puck, eventually you will pay the price,” Cassidy said. “I think that’s on us as a group just to be sharper with it. They do have to manage the puck better and be mindful of that and be accountable to themselves that they make the appropriate play.”

Also on Cassidy’s Game 3 checklist is an improvement in faceoffs (the B’s won less than 50 percent in Games 1 and 2) and a more energetic start. While they’ve actually outscored the Lightning, 2-1, over both first periods, and have matched their 21 first-period shots, the Bruins have basically relied on Rask to hold the Bolts at bay until they’ve found their legs.

Cassidy thinks that playing at the Garden, where the Bruins took three of four in Round 1, should help.

“Just the fact that you’re home, you tend to start better,” he said. “It’s probably the crowd — everyone has a little more juice. We expect we’ll have [fans] behind us, so hopefully we’re up and running right from the puck drop.”