BOS VS WSHProductive Peverley remains on Bruins' scoring line

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The top six forwards have been challenged by their coach to step up their production.

That much was pretty clear after the forward lines were thoroughly rearranged at Boston Bruins practice Friday morning.

Spunky forward Brad Marchand was dropped to the fourth line with Gregory Campbell and Shawn Thornton, and Tyler Seguin was similarly demoted to the third line alongside Chris Kelly and Benoit Pouliot.

But one of the few players in that top-six group that doesn't have anything to hang their head about when changes were being made: Rich Peverley.

The shifty winger leads the Bruins with two playoff goals scored in the last two games, and has three or more shots on net in three of the four playoff games against a Washington Capitals team that sees the series tied 2-2.

"I've been able to sneak a couple through, but we lost [Game 4] so it doesn't really matter," said Peverley.

So Peverley was skating with Patrice Bergeron and Daniel Paille at practice while still operating on one of the top two lines. It's Marchand, Seguin, Milan Lucic, Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci that have gone scoreless through the first four post-season games, so there was no message-sending for Peverley.

Forward shuffling

"There's no real thought about one particular guy [with the changes]. It's more about moving guys around and trying to give lines a spark more than the individual. Right now we're not getting the production we'd like to, but we're doing a good job," said Claude Julien of the forward shuffling.

"We're not playing a bad game. We're breaking out of our own end no problem, we're going through the neutral zone no problem and we're getting pucks in deep no problem.

"At the end of the day it's just trying to resolve the situation of capitalizing on our chances and that kind of stuff. So, that's the only [problem] area."

It also seemed Julien wanted to get a little more experience and poise under pressure balanced throughout the forward lines. Peverley is perhaps the only B's forward playing his best hockey of the last month in the post-season. Most of the last month was spent getting back on track after missing six weeks with a sprained right knee, but now Peverley is hitting his goal-scoring stride.

The faked move to pass on the odd-man rush that led to Boston's only goal in Game 4 spoke to a skilled forward that's getting a little swagger back into his game. Many of his teammates could use the exact same thing right about now.

"The [Capitals] blocked a lot of shots. We could definitely use more net-front presence. We had a few chances and there were definitely a few that rolled off to the side and we couldn't get there to bang them in," said Peverley.

"We definitely need to do that if we're going to win this series. He likes to glove the puck and hold on to everything. He saw everything tonight. That's for sure. We need to get more bodies in front of him.

"Most of the goalies in the league will stop it if they can see it. He's another example."

Holtby has stopped more than 95 per cent of the shots he's faced against the Bruins during their four playoff games.

More B's skaters need to take a page out of the Peverley book if they're to start generating some more needed offence among a group of lines created to wake them up.

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