Neely knows Bruins need better power play to succeed

Neely

BOSTON — Cam Neely scored 142 regular-season power-play goals in his Hall-of-Fame NHL career.

So he knows a thing or two about what it takes to make the man-advantage successful. However, don’t expect the Bruins president to lace up his skates and show his underperforming players the right way to play when up a man.

“My skates are too small now. My feet grew somehow. I won’t be getting on the ice,” Neely said with a chuckle Thursday during his season-ending remarks at TD Garden. “I’ll give my opinions, and have, when the time is right. But we’ve got plenty of coaches for that.”

Although he won’t be taking that close a hands-on approach, Neely sounded like he was determined to have a team that can use the power play more to its advantage. The Bruins finished in the middle of the pack during the regular season and then were just 2-for-23 in the seven-game first-round loss to Washington.

“We really need to have a philosophical difference of how we look at the power play,” Neely said. “I don’t just look at the percentage of the power play, I look at when we get power plays, what the score of the game is, what time of the game is – that’s important. Maybe more so important than what the actual percentage of the power play is. I think we have the personnel that we can improve on the power play. You know, there’s some things we’ll certainly discuss in the offseason about what we can do differently with the power play – you know I think it’s an area that absolutely needs improvement and we will improve on it.”