As predicted, the team is under-done. I'm not sure Monty did the best job in managing this pre-season camp, but to be fair there were a number of adverse factors that were beyond his control. Either way, they're not ready. So be it. Nothing for it but hard work. A LOT of work. Can blow off one loss, even a bad one. But quite a bit to do to turn this into a functional team.
One positive was seeing some scoring. All the goals were probably meaningless in the context of this game, but in the bigger picture any offense is welcome from this group. A little something to build on.
Lot of folks are massively over-eager on wanting to see this team turn up the tough and nasty. You can't just flick a switch or add two or three players and away you go. The Bruins haven't been anything approaching 'big bad' for the best part of a decade. We've seen otherwise chippy guys like Hathaway and Maroon come here and mostly play tame. Because playing physical and aggressive is a team-wide mindset and approach. It's cultural, and this group is coming from a fair way back. They want to play bruising hockey, and that's assuming they actually want to, you need the leadership to buy in, the coaches to buy in, and you need the foot soldiers to follow the lead. You also need to earn a reputation whereby other teams will respect and ideally even fear what you can do and consider your toughness genuine. It's all going to take time.
More broadly, what does this team want to be? How do they want to play? What plays best to their strengths? I don't think they know yet. With this roster, the Cassidy and early Monty styles won't work. So what will? They find it, and they can do some business. If not, small possibility this could be a rough year. Reality and the odds say at some point even the Bruins are going to falter and have a proper dud season. I don't think this is it. But I wouldn't rule it out.
For now, get home, get your heads down and do better.
