2 weeks Ago By Audrey Cooney
By Tim Rosenthal Following their October swoon , the Boston Bruins used the past two games to slowly build their identity. After playing with pace and emotion in their bounce-back win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday, Jim Montgomery’s club picked up where they left off in Sunday’s 2-0 victory over the Seattle Kraken. The Bruins encountered some lulls following one of their better starts of the young year.
Still, they persevered through fatigue and earned their second shutout in as many days. Here are a few thoughts on a night where the Bruins honored the colorful Jack Edwards for his 19 years behind the NESN microphone. Even after their second shutout in as many days — a feat they last achieved on Oct.
27-28 of 2008 — the Bruins encountered a bit of turmoil involving one of their top scorers. Montgomery shortened his bench after sitting David Pastrnak for the entirety of the third period. Pastrnak fired seven shots on net through the first two periods.
Even without tallying a point drew attention from Seattle’s penalty kill in the opening frame, paving the way for Charlie Coyle’s highlight-reel tally. goodness gracious charlie coyle pic.twitter.
com/gYvhfKHIk8 Yet, Pastrnak generated his share of turnovers and struggled to handle the puck at times, especially during the final 1:40 of the second during Boston’s fifth and final chance with the man advantage. Montgomery didn’t expand on his reasoning for benching one of his alternate captains during his postgame press conference. “Coach’s decision,” Montgomery said.
“That’s all I’m going to comment on it.” The only ice time Pastrnak saw in the third came when he took a twirl during a TV timeout. Despite that lack of ice time in a closeout situation, Pastrnak remained lively and upbeat on the bench, supporting his teammates as they capped off the 2-0 win.
“He wasn’t silent,” Coyle said of Pastrnak. “He was bringing energy. He was talking.
He was into it. That’s the sign of a good teammate right there. And that’s why he’s one of our captains and one of our leaders.
” Montgomery entered message-sending mode with another one of his leaders. But Boston’s energy remained contagious from the opening puck drop on. For the second straight game, Boston looked determined from the get-go.
The Bruins looked like a fresher bunch, even in the second half of a back-to-back. They also likely benefitted from the Kraken arriving in Boston in the early morning hours following their 3-0 setback in Ottawa on Saturday night. Between their relentless puck pursuit and a stingy checking presence, the Bruins paced themselves to an early advantage on Justin Brazeau’s tip and Coyle’s power-play marker.
Justin Brazeau tips a Nikita Zadorov shot for his 4th goal in his last 6 games. Charlie Coyle kept the play alive from his knees to get it back to the blue line. pic.
twitter.com/vltGy6bWee The Bruins nearly extended their lead to 3-0 late in the opening frame until an offside review overturned Pave Zacha’s marker. That, along with a bit of a sloppy power play attempt in the final minutes, provided a rare blemish on an otherwise dominant 20 minutes.
Montgomery’s club outshot Seattle 15-3 in the first. The Kraken didn’t land their first shot on net until the 17:01 mark of the opening frame. Still, just like Joonas Korpisalo’s effort in net during Saturday’s win in Philadelphia, the Bruins encountered their share of hiccups over the next 40 minutes, spanning from turnovers to sloppy puck possessions.
Yet, as they faced heavier traffic amid Seattle’s pushback, the Bruins received another round of timely stops from Jeremy Swayman, including 13 in the final frame, to secure their sixth win of the year. “I loved our first period, disliked our second, which was very similar to the Flyer game,” Montgomery said of Boston’s bend-but-don’t-break performance. “Our execution still needs to grow.
Our maturity as a team, as far as game management, still needs to grow. We’re winning games right now. You don’t give up goals and your goaltenders are playing as well as they did.
It’s a good step. We’re heading in the right direction. November has been much better than October.
” 🎥 Coach Montgomery on the #NHLBruins shutout win over Seattle: "I love the effort blocking shots, I love us sticking together...
you can see us coming together. We're protecting the slot and we're sacrificing for each other. Our execution still needs to continue to grow.
" pic.twitter.com/rl8tmLAC0t For the first time under Montgomery, the Bruins carried a losing record into the second month of the season.
The slow start put them in uncharted territory, coming off a combined October mark of 16-1-1 during Montgomery’s first two seasons. After two straight postseason exits at the hands of the Florida Panthers, the Bruins hope to benefit from that early-season adversity. Even with their two recent wins, Montgomery’s club knows they’re not quite where they want to be in terms of playing to their identity.
But over the last two games, they’ve showcased more stick-to-itiveness under multiple scenarios. Against the Flyers, the Bruins persevered through a shaky middle 20 and even extended their lead to 2-0 following Korpisalo’s timely stops. Even with Seattle’s pushback in the final 20, the Bruins remained stingy on defense, blocking multiple shots while allowing Swayman to track pucks cleanly.
Be it defensive stinginess, timely scoring or other supporting methods similar to Trent Frederic taking exception to Adam Larsson’s hit in the third, the Bruins came together to stop the proverbial bleeding. With another small step forward, the Bruins hope to take another stride Tuesday night in Toronto by extending their win streak to three for the first time this season. “I think there’s a lot to build on, and we know that there’s going to be outside noise no matter if we’re winning or losing,” Swayman said following his 23-save outing.
“So it’s our job to keep these doors closed and momentum in our room and make sure we’re showing up on the ice every day. And that’s what we’ve been doing these last couple of days, and I think it’s a really great way to move forward.” Boston.
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