Scoring has not come easily for the Bruins in general. But goals from a defenseman? Welll, it’s been a while.

Going into Tuesday’s game against the Edmonton Oilers, the B’s had not gotten a goal from a D-man in over a month, dating back to December 3 to be exact, when Nikita Zadorov scored in a win over the Detroit Red Wings.

With back-to-back four-goal games in losing efforts, the B’s have bumped up to 27th in the NHL ranking in goals per game average, but they’ve got a long way to go if they want to become an actual contender. Not counting the injured Hampus Lindholm’s three goals, the B’s current crop of D-men had yet to break double digits in goals with just nine in total.

Coach Joe Sacco believes the dam will break if they continue to do the right things.

“Just stick with it, keep putting the puck toward the net, keep making sure that we have that shot mentality with two on the inside. Sooner or later, some of those will go in,” said Sacco after Tuesday’s morning skate at the Garden. “And then just making sure that our timing is accurate when we want to join the rush, support the attack, get up in the play. Those are the opportunities for your D-men to score. Obviously some guys are on the power play, too.”

Charlie McAvoy is the B’s leading goalscorer among the D-man with five, which puts him behind his pace of last season when he had 12, a career-high. He’s also got the most opportunity, as he logs the most minutes and is quarterbacking the first power-play unit.

McAvoy’s last goal came on December 1, when he scored a pair against the Montreal Canadiens. Finding the back of the net means doing something he sometimes seems hesitant to do.

“We’ve got to shoot pucks first,” said McAvoy, who was robbed by the Rangers’ Jonathan Quick last week. “We have to try and be that layered attack when we can. There’s times when I’ve had it when guys curl up and find you. We’ve got to score. Last game we almost had one with (Morgan Geekie) but we were a little off. We’ve talked about how we’re not rush team, so we’ve got to orchestrate from the blue line, which means just shooting pucks and being shot ready.”

As McAvoy alluded to, part of the reason for the dearth of goals is structure-related. The way the B’s want to defend, their D-men can’t force a rush.

“You certainly can’t push it,” said McAvoy. “Nobody wins when you push it. You end up being out position and we’re a pretty strict, rigid team. That allows us to have success defensively. Pushing for offense is not going to work for anyone.”

That’s something that one of the B’s more offensively talented blueliners, Mason Lohrei, has to be reminded of. He’s given up a couple of 2-on-1s lately by pinching down at the wrong time. Lohrei has one goal, though he leads the D-men in assists with 15. He’s also a team-low minus-11.

“Sometimes he gets over-aggressive at the blue line,” said Sacco. “He’s got to understand when to make plays and when not to make plays. We want to make sure that he is generating and creating offense for us in certain situation but not high risk, either. There’s a balance there. But he’s got to just trust his offensive instincts, when to join the play, when to support the attack in the offensive zone, when he can slide into a hole when he’s out there with players who can see him.”…

A pleasant sight to see was the defenseman Lindholm back on the ice prior to B’s team morning skate. Lindholm hasn’t played since he took a shot off the knee in a November 12 game in St. Louis. He’d been off to a very good start and looked more like the 2022-23 version of himself.

Sacco said that there is still no timetable and, on the ice on Tuesday, Lindholm wasn’t pushing it too hard yet. But whenever he does return, it should provide a boost.

“You miss any player that you have in your lineup that has an impact on the game, night in and night out,” said Sacco. “Every team goes through those types of scenarios. We’re no different. We’ve been somewhat fortunate, knock on wood, not to have too many. But we miss Hampus. He plays in all situations for us. He plays against top lines, eats up a lot of minutes, a big guy that defends well. When the time comes, he’ll be a nice addition to our group.”…

David Pastrnak was coming off back-to-back multiple goal games in games against Toronto and the Islanders in which he skated 21:37 and 23:34. It’s been a slow start for him, but he was up to 17 goals going into Tuesday.

“The second night he still had his legs, they were really going the second the night. I thought both nights they were but even more so the second game of a back-to-back where he logged heavy minutes,” said Sacco. “He played over 20 minutes each night. So when David’s skating, that’s the key. His commitment away from the puck was really good Sunday night. He did a really good job. And he ended up getting the puck three or four times just from being in the right spots, which led to more offense for him and his line. Like any goalscorer, once you score you feel good about yourself and you gain that confidence. He’s a goalscorer.”