The Bruins’ power play is in a bit of a funk.

In the four games since the All-Star break, the B’s are 1-for-17 on the power play, and that one goal came on a 5-on-3 in a 4-1 loss to Calgary. The drought cost them dearly in their 3-2 shootout loss to the Tampa Lightning on Tuesday when the PP went 0-for-6.

As usual, the B’s practiced the man-advantage in the second half of Wednesday’s session at Warrior Ice Arena with the same personnel groupings (minus-David Pastrnak, who was given a maintenance day; Kevin Shattenkirk was his place-holder on the left elbow). As coach Jim Montgomery pointed, he’s switched personnel before and will still switch out Pavel Zacha for Charlie Coyle, depending the faceoff.

“I think we’re really comfortable with the other four,” said Montgomery, referring to Brad Marchand, Pasrnak, Charlie McAAvoy and James van Riemsdyk.

He feels the more recent lack of success has to do with how they’re going about attacking.

“We were just getting back to our structure,” said Montgomery. “Coach (Chris) Kelly met them before practice and showed clips of them of when we’re rolling and lately, the difference of coming together on breakouts and executing and finishing our routes on entries and then the quicker puck movement and getting pucks to high-grade scoring areas.”

While the O-fer was costly on Tuesday, the work wasn’t all bad. On the B‘s first power play, they spent almost the entire two minutes in the offensive zone and did everything but beat Andrei Vasilevskiy. And after two skittish man-advantages in the third, their final one in regulation had its chances as well.

It won’t help them get that lost standings point back, but it should pump the breaks on a major overhaul.

“He showed those good clips also,” said Montgomery. “When you’re a confident power play, the puck’s moving and you’re converging at the net. A good power play is going (toward the net) and a bad power play is going away from the net…You need at least three guys inside the dots to be an effective power play, for me and for the way we’d like to play and the things that have given us success.”

Van Riemsdyk maintained his spot as the net-front presence on the first unit. He was upbeat on the state of the power play.

“We haven’t had the (success) that we had earlier in the year, in the last few weeks or so. But (Tuesday) night I felt like we had some good movement and some good looks on net and doing more of the things we had been doing the whole year to make us successful,” said van Riemsdyk. “I think it’s a matter of just playing within the structure and taking the options that are there. So I think it’s that fine line of being predictable to each other and having different options we can go to so if teams are trying to take away different things, then we know the next play. We have such good puck handling guys on the power play who do such a good job with that. I think we did a good job of that and getting some pucks back. Recovering pucks, too, is a big thing.”

Van Riemsdyk technically didn’t score on the power play on Tuesday, but he did tie the game on a delayed penalty when the B‘s put on an extra attacker. It was the kind of goal that he’s lived off over his career – an in-tight put-back of a rebound – that have been more rare this year for some reason, though not for lack of opportunity. His 8.3% shooting percent is the lowest of his career.

“It’s been interesting that way. For sure, I felt like I’ve had some good looks around the net and felt like I could have a few more goals right now,” said van Riemsdyk, who has nine on the season. “But, yeah, I think ultimately goals like that become more important at this time of year going into the playoffs when things are tighter out there. Chances are fewer and far between off the rush, so just know this is the time of year to really key in on that and really know how important it is. Obviously it’s a real important part of my game so I’ve got to make sure I’m there in the right areas and really try to do my thing there.”…

Montgomery said he plans on taking another look at Anthony Richard on Thursday against the Seattle Kraken.

“I see a player who has given us some of the tings we need, the speed, the tenacity on pucks, the ability to recover and get back. I like the way his game’s developing,” said Montgomery. “His forechecking has been really good. He made the great pass to (Trent Frederic) off the one forecheck. I think he’s going to get more comfortable and we’ll see how he continues to progress.”

Richard’s line did have a couple of extended shifts in the Boston zone and at, 5-foot-10, he could be challenged getting pucks out from the wall.

“The defensive zone is a five-man unit, but the best role model you can have is Brad Marchand, right?” said Montgomery. “(But) he’s there, he’s executing details and habits. I see him in practice, he stops, he’s doing what we want as a strong side winger. The stick positioning and things are things we’ll continue to work on. But he has progressed really well for someone who had never played a zone system before.”…

Pastrnak left Tuesday’s game late in the second period in some pain after taking a hit from Victor Hedman along the boards, but returned to play the third period and said he was fine after the game. Montgomery said his maintenance day was more to do with his minutes.

“He played (22:24) last night. There tends to be a little muscle soreness when you play that many minutes so I just wanted to back off him,” said Montgomery…

From the Department of Unequal Justice: The NHL fined Linus Ullmark $5,000 for high-sticking Tampa’s Michael Eyssimont. That high stick was preceded by a shoulder/elbow to Ullmark’s head, which received neither the two-minute minor it should have gotten nor a fine….

Antennae went up when GM Don Sweeney was seen heading into an office with UFA-to-be Jake DeBrusk. They could have been chatting about anything, of course, but it’s not an everyday occurrence to see the GM meeting with a player. And when that player is in need of a new deal then, well, it gets people thinking. But as of Wednesday afternoon, there was no word of an extension.