Bruins
On Saturday, the Boston Bruins entered uncharted territory under Jim Montgomery.
After three disappointing games in a row against Utah, Nashville and Dallas, the Bruins entered their first game of the season against the equally struggling Toronto Maple Leafs with a record of 3-4-1.
The three-game skid dropped the Bruins below the .500 mark for the primary time under Montgomery. In the previous two years, the Bruins used an 8-1-0 begin to the 2022-23 season to propel their record-setting regular season and followed with an 8-0-1 mark to finish a transitional a hundredth anniversary season to start.
This yr, the Bruins didn't have the posh of a productive first month. But between Jeremy Swayman's late arrival, some injuries in training camp and an adjustment period for newcomers like Elias Lindholm and Nikita Zadorov, the B's are more likely to face some transitional difficulties as Montgomery's third term begins.
In fact, the growing pains were manifested by a scarcity of depth on the wings, poorly timed penalties, turnovers, sloppy passing, defensive errors, a stagnant power play, errors in game management and declining goal performance from some core players. Saturday night they were still having a few of those hiccups.
But of their first Original Six match of the yr, the Bruins finally put together a productive performance lasting greater than 60 minutes.
“I don't think we're worried about the goal as much as more [about] The way we wanted to play,” forward David Pastrnak said after Boston’s 4-3 extra time win over the Leafs. “We know why we don't score is because we didn't spend enough time in the offensive zone, and we also know why we didn't. Of course we want to get better at it, but that doesn't happen overnight. So we have to take it day by day, step by step, and today is a great day. A great win to move forward.”
Unlike the primary eight games, the Bruins spent a lot of the game on offense. But they didn't reap the immediate advantages.
Although the Bruins held every 5-on-5 advantage in the primary 20 minutes, they fell just 35 ticks behind within the second minute after Matthew Knies pounced on a loose puck within the slot after Auston Matthews went hard to the highest of the web had shot.
Boston's fast-paced power play responded 2:22 later when Pastrnak scored his sixth goal of the season. But faced with a 1-2 deficit, they stagnated again on the next two attempts and were unable to convert William Nylander's double minor for strongly sticking pastry.
Some nights you could discover a struggling team faltering. Instead, the Bruins responded.
Shortly after Nylander's penalty expired, Justin Brazeau and Marc Kastelic capitalized on their second scoring possibilities from Anthony Stolarz just 36 seconds apart to offer the Bruins their first lead of the night.
“It was great, especially after the last short stretch we had,” Brazeau said after the Bruins overcame two second-period deficits. “It was nice for us to stick with it and not let that stuff get us down, but just go out on the next shift and give it our all.”
In fact, the Bruins stayed focused as they entered shutdown mode over the ultimate 20 games. But their efforts were almost in vain.
Matthews forced extra time after getting past Boston's D to guide Mitch Marner's feed past Jeremy Swayman. His equalizer got here just seconds after Pavel Zacha went offside, canceling out Brad Marchand's attempt at an empty net ball.
Still, the Bruins remained calm. And Marchand had a golden likelihood for redemption after Matthews turned the puck over on Boston's offense.
Amid a 2-on-1 sequence with Pastrnak, the snake-bitten Marchand knocked the puck out of the air on a rebound and got it off the hook at 2:26 of extra time.
“It was nice for the group to be rewarded for playing the right way,” Marchand said. “Sometimes you do it once or twice and it doesn't go the way you want, and then you switch things up and develop bad habits. We didn't do that tonight when they scored late. We just kept playing like that and it paid off.”
The Bruins can breathe a little bit easier now that the proverbial bleeding has been stopped. But they know it should take greater than a win over a heated rival to beat this turnaround early within the season.
The ups and downs will proceed throughout your complete 82-game stretch. This time, they may need to face adversity early of their regular season.
As they proceed to expand their identity – and maybe add needed depth in the center (a minimum of temporarily) while Tyler Johnson waits patiently to sign a short-term deal – the Bruins have a superb plan in place after persevering their solution to victory on Saturday have.
“It's a game, and it's not going to change things completely,” Marchand said. “But it's a great way to realize that we're a good team when we play the right way. That’s a great group over there, a great offense, and it’s a great way to start building our foundation and understanding how we need to play to be successful.”
image credit : www.boston.com