The Bruins (5.25 goals per game) rank No. 1 in scoring so far. Hey, if you’ve got the horses, run wild. It’s early in the season, and who wants to play a 2-1 game?
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Chasing down a few loose pucks after the Bruins won three of four to start the season …
⋅ At this point in Jim Montgomery’s tenure, how do the Bruins describe his brand of hockey?
“Fast,” defenseman Connor Clifton said. “We’re playing fast. We’re going. We’re getting that puck off your stick, we’re getting it to the forwards, we’re jumping up in the play, we’re going to play some offense.”
Multiple defensemen have said they feel more freedom than in Bruce Cassidy’s system. As soon as a winger gains possession in the corner or along the boards, the net-front defenseman can go. That doesn’t always mean a defensemen is crashing the opponent’s net, but the Bruins want to pressure opponents with their legs.
“You want to get the heck out of the D-zone,” Clifton said. “We end plays, take away time and space, join the rush, then we’re playing 30 to 40 seconds in the O-zone. Then we do it again.”
As a team, they are shooting 13.21 percent at 5 on 5, third in the league. Their save percentage (88.04) is fourth-worst. You’d think Jeremy Swayman (whose two starts have not been spectacular) and Linus Ullmark (solid enough) will put it together.
The Bruins do need to fix their rush defense — Ottawa, as pointed out by NHL Network, scored five of their seven goals after controlled breakouts — and sort out in-zone coverage. All five skaters went sideways at times on Tuesday.
They will look a lot better when they can deploy Charlie McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm for about 25 minutes a game each, sometimes on the same pair. With Matt Grzelcyk and Brandon Carlo both sidelined along with McAvoy, the Bruins are without three of their four best defensemen.
ruins to regular partner Derek Forbort in shorthanded time on ice (3:25 per game) and is one second ahead of Lindholm in even-strength TOI (18:41).
“Generally every team I’ve been on in the past, I try to fill the cracks within the lineup. I’m that kind of guy. I’ve been with Forbs the past couple years now, so it’s like, OK, I’m a bottom-pair guy, I’m going to do whatever the team needs at the moment.”
⋅ Is this a team that thinks it can outscore its mistakes? Let’s not go that far.
“I think nothing has changed for us,” said David Pastrnak, who woke up Wednesday T-2 in league scoring (3-5—8 in four games). “Hockey’s a long season. It’s still early. These kinds of games are going to happen. You see it around the league all the time. Sometimes the puck’s going into the net both ways. It’s not something you plan going into the season, but you have to be able to win these kinds of games.”
A track meet to end a three-in-four, against a team playing its home opener. Not ideal.
“I don’t think it’s like us to give up that many goals,” Nick Foligno said. “They were a team ready to play, had a burr from the previous games and having a home opener with that many people in the stands. We knew we were up against it.”
The debuting Anton Stralman didn’t have his legs under him Tuesday, after spending a few days off the ice dealing with visa issues in Canada.
“I thought he had a really good first period,” Montgomery said, “and I think you can tell he hasn’t been able to skate with us as a group, because it looked like he got a little bit tired as the game wore on. He’s going to be a real good Bruin for us.”
⋅ Check in on this in 20 games: Jake DeBrusk is playing like a top-line winger, A.J. Greer is a third-line difference-maker, and Foligno looks like the player he was in his later years in Columbus.
Foligno has been a solid bottom-sixer, building momentum by crashing the net, arriving on time on the forecheck, and playing sound positional defense. His production — two goals and an assist through four games, after 2-11–13 in 64 games last year — is a bonus.