The Bruins are 5-1-0 without Zdeno Chara. Dougie Hamilton (1-2—3, 23:37 of ice time) is comfortable as the blue line’s big dog.

His team has won four straight, the latest a 5-2 victory, following a four-goal third-period outburst, over a fragile Edmonton club on Thursday.

The line of Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron, and Reilly Smith is rolling in all three zones. The threesome landed 12 shots on goal against the Oilers, with Smith beating Ben Scrivens in the first period. The other three lines combined for 11 shots on goal.

The Bruins had two goals waved off after early whistles were blown. In the second, Seth Griffith poked in the puck. In the third, with Scrivens down and out, David Krejci bumped the puck over the line. Neither goal counted.


But Julien recognizes that his team is misfiring. Above the water, everything looks calm. Under the surface, they are paddling and fighting and scratching, which does not fill the coach with confidence.

“I really feel there’s still a lot from our team that can get better,” Julien said. “We still have those waves where you talk about the second period and stuff like that. As we get along here, I’d like to see our team become a little more consistent.”

Julien had no complaints about the third period. The Bruins, trailing 2-1 with less than 10 minutes left, flooded the Edmonton net with four straight pucks off the sticks of Loui Eriksson, Carl Soderberg, Hamilton, and Milan Lucic.

The second period, however, was all kinds of soft.

Edmonton is a skilled team. The Oilers play with pace and snap the puck around. But they are without Taylor Hall, their best player, because of a knee injury. Marc Arcobello, an undrafted four-year Yalie, is their second-line center. Former top pick Nail Yakupov, arguably their most explosive offensive player, is still learning the three-zone craft that will earn him the trust of his coach.


For most of the second period, despite their deficiencies, the Oilers skated rings around the Bruins. They claimed the neutral zone as their property. They repeatedly gained clean entries into the Boston zone. They attempted 27 shots compared with the Bruins’ 19. The Bruins were lucky the Oilers never scored on their multiple sniffs.

Bergeron’s line was the only unit controlling the puck, making strong plays, and threatening Scrivens. The other three lines submitted shift after shift of zero-resistance, easy-to-play-against passivity.

“It definitely doesn’t feel like our best hockey,” said Hamilton. “When we’re playing our best, it’s pretty easy hockey. We’re grinding them down. All four lines are rolling in their end. Lately, it’s just been spurts of that. We’ve just got to keep focusing on those little things — defensive parts, chipping pucks out, and getting pucks on net. I think we’ve definitely improved on that. We just have to keep improving.”

The Bruins’ 45 minutes of shooting blanks were not in isolation. Two nights earlier, they also smashed their heads into bricks against the pack-it-in Panthers. For the second straight game, scoring chances were harder to find than parking spots near TD Garden.

Florida, however, has a history of stinginess. The Panthers are allowing 2.09 goals per game. Edmonton is giving up a league-worst 3.62 goals per game. Chances should have been far easier to compile against the pond-hockey Oilers. But for most of the second period and the start of the third, the Bruins were chasing the puck or throwing it away.


“They’re playing a lot better defensively,” Julien said of the Oilers. “They still have their speed. They still have their skill. They’re becoming a lot tougher to score against.”

By the time Arcobello gave Edmonton a 2-1 lead at 1:44 of the third, Julien had no choice but to juggle his three sleepy lines. Matt Fraser spelled Griffith alongside Lucic and Krejci. Chris Kelly, who started the night as the No. 4 left wing, moved into his usual spot next to Soderberg and Eriksson.

At 11:04, the moves paid off. With Kelly setting a screen on Scrivens, Eriksson went backdoor and scored to tie the game at 2-2. Two power-play goals later, the Bruins had grabbed a 4-2 lead. Lucic’s empty-netter turned the game into a laugher, which it wasn’t for 50-plus minutes.

The primary concern is Krejci’s status. The top-line center returned on Thursday after missing two games because of an undisclosed injury. It’s the same injury that knocked him out for the first three games of the season.

Krejci (two shots, 8 for 13 on faceoffs, one assist in 16:16 of ice time) created some chances. But he was tagged with six penalty minutes in the first — four for carving open Leon Draisaitl, and two for hooking at the end of the period. He missed a shift in the third because of soreness in the area neither he nor Julien will identify. It is an injury Krejci will have to manage, and might knock him out of the lineup for a third time if things go sour.


With Krejci not 100 percent and Griffith serving as a temporary right wing, the Bruins’ first is struggling to gain traction. This could continue. If Krejci has to miss time, Kelly will have to center Lucic and Griffith. This makes the third line weaker.

For now, Julien is keeping a close eye on the situation. He doesn’t like to change his lines. But he has to be active if his team’s level of execution continues to flicker. This is what coaches are paid to do.

Fluto Shinzawa can be reached at fshinzawa@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeFluto.