Bruins
Brad Marchand isn't the one Bruin to feel Jim Montgomery's wrath.
Amid one other night of turnovers, penalty problems and a scarcity of attention to detail, Boston's third-year reserve coach delivered one other heated message to his club during a TV timeout.
Whatever message Montgomery was attempting to convey after watching David Pastrnak take his second penalty at midfield didn't appear to resonate with the remaining of the club. The Bruins gave up their third power play goal after halftime when former teammate Tyler Seguin scored his fourth goal of the season at 8:59 of the second minute.
The Bruins got Casey Desmith a handful of quality looks.
But with every attack, from Matthew Poitras scoring Pastrnak's first goal of the sport to Justin Brazeau ending Trent Frederic's wraparound feed, the Bruins countered with more poorly timed stick fouls on offense. And for each Jeremy Swayman save, there was one other round of fumbled marking within the shootout.
Thursday's 5-2 setback saw the Bruins fall to 3-4-1. Here are just a few takeaways because the B's embark on their worst eight-game season opening stretch since a 5-3 loss firstly of the 2011-12 season.
Montgomery wants his club to have a healthier attitude.
Sometimes being results-oriented can result in an excessive amount of deal with wins and losses over an extended season. Montgomery believes the Bruins are falling into that trap after the primary eight games of the brand new 12 months.
In fact, the Bruins don't appear like a confident bunch. Finally, it’s difficult to create such an environment after they play from the back due to lack of the ball at inopportune times and problems with penalty kicks.
In return, the Bruins proceed to hunt easy gratification fairly than asserting their identity. And in keeping with Montgomery, their focus at once isn't on what's needed.
“Our attitudes need to move in a better and healthier direction…” said Montgomery… “e.g. B. trying to regulate what you may control, which implies excelling in your role.” Our attitudes are not in the moment. You are on the results. And when your mindset is focused on results, you tend to take too many penalties because you get frustrated easily, and you turn the puck over a lot because you don't want to work for the offense. You want immediate results. This attitude of not being willing to work for what we want to achieve, to achieve our team game, is causing us problems at the moment.”
Are there any frustrations? Naturally. But they don't rise. At least not yet.
In fact, the Bruins desperately need a spark to energize their struggling offense. Montgomery's attempts to maneuver his lineup yielded no results, leading much of the fan base to suggest signing Tyler Johnson or promoting Fabian Lysell from Providence.
Still, the Bruins knew they would enter the season as a work in progress after enduring more roster moves in the offseason. Nevertheless, Marchand believes they can correct the plethora of errors in a timely manner.
“Many of the mistakes we make and the reasons we lose are due to our lack of respect for the game, consistency and details. These are things that can be fixed,” Marchand said after his two-penalty night. “If you lack effort and the guys don’t care, that’s a whole different problem and we don’t have that.”
The Bruins find themselves in uncharted territory because the season begins.
With a loaded roster, the Bruins compiled a 9-1 record in the primary month of the Montgomery era en path to a record-setting regular season.
A 12 months later, within the midst of a transitional season, Montgomery's club began the primary month of the Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci era at 8-0-1.
Of course, the struggling Florida Panthers dashed Boston's Cup hopes. The first 12 months had a shocking ending, while the next season delivered a far less surprising result.
Right now, the Bruins are nowhere near the Panthers or stars among the many NHL's elite. In fact, they’re entering uncharted territory under Montgomery heading into the season.
Due to camp injuries to the newcomers Elias Lindholm and Max Jones respectively Swayman's late arrival After the Bruins signed their $66 million extension, they’d to take care of several moving parts. In this respect, they’re catching up somewhat with one another in the event of chemistry.
The move doesn't free them from turnover or penalty issues. Nor does it excuse them for his or her sluggish bursts, their slow power play, or their defensive failures.
The early difficulties remind them: the season doesn't end in October. But the Bruins must correct their troubling trend of playing catch-up hockey sooner fairly than later.
“For this to happen to us at the beginning of the year is a little uncharted territory,” said defenseman Charlie McAvoy. “The last few years we've just been gangsters, but I think part of our attitude is that being the best team in October didn't do us any good.”
Are the Bruins closer to a breakthrough than we predict?
The penalties and turnovers once more put the Bruins in a difficult position. But her commitment improved between the ultimate two games of her road trip in Utah and Nashville and Thursday's outing.
While it wasn't necessarily a night-and-day comparison, the Bruins looked somewhat more confident when it got here to getting pucks into dangerous areas. Even on one other night of sloppy passing, they generated several quality looks for DeSmith behind Brazeau's net-front play and Pastrnak's creativity.
“It just feels like we’re close,” McAvoy said. “The last few games we're getting that top-notch look. The power play gets these looks. We go deep. We're coming to the internet. We're just one play away from many of them [chances].”
So close and yet distant.
Because of the period of time they spent on the penalty kill, the Bruins were barely able to ascertain a flow in 5-on-5 play. The PK units proceed to be stressed, forcing Montgomery to regulate his lineup after each short-handed situation.
Maybe the Bruins will finally give you the option to get to the web more consistently in the event that they can limit their mistakes and create more possibilities in 5-on-5 play. But despite one other slice of humble pie, early season adversity isn't necessarily the worst development.
“This is a tough league. It will humble you pretty quickly,” Marchand added. “If any team thinks they’re just going to get through, then they’re in for something else. It's a great opportunity for us to take advantage of it, get better and go through the process of simplifying it [our play]. We’ll be fine.”
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