Nor should it.
Reasons Not Excuses Dept.: McAvoy, Zacha and Forbort are out. There's a debilitating, energy sapping bug going round the locker room.
They don't play till Wednesday v. NJ, so at least they'll have some practice time, players will return from injury, and the contagion will fade.
Even so, the team right now is a mess.
They need to keep it simple and work primarily on righting a defensive game that has gone completely off the rails. They can't get out of their own end passing or carrying the puck. They're also getting hemmed in their own zone way, way too often.
As Mick Colageo has pointed out repeatedly,
"If there is a lesson in letting the Panthers off the playoff mat last spring, it has to be that the Eastern Conference’s most-physical team gave 30 other teams a manual for playing the Bruins. Rim the puck hard around the boards and don’t let the Bruins get to Montgomery’s short-pass, puck-moving system. Disrupt with hits and make them pay a price to make strong puck plays. Chaos is the Bruins’ Kryptonite."
From what I can see, the Bruins have no answer for this problem, and it is central to their current defensive woes. Until they do, they're in trouble.
This is a coaching and "systems" issue. There's no reason why a solution can't be found, but Montgomery is either going to have to fix the flaw in his defensive strategy or go back to the drawing board. It's on him and his staff to right the ship.
Overreliance on elite goaltending to save their bacon every night has led to a] sloppy, irresponsible play, "blown assignments," and b] sapped the physical and mental strength of Ullmark and Swayman. The tactic is not working, hasn't for a good while, and will not work in future. The Bruins have to straighten out their defensive game on several levels, and they can start by going back to basics.
Offensively, the fourth and third lines are fine.
Lines one and two -- which is which? -- have not been stable as Montgomery attempts to sort them out. Jake DeBrusk's renewed struggle with inconsistency -- which frankly I did not see coming after a break out season and a chance to cash in with a hefty new contract -- has been a major weakness putting the top six in workable order. FWIW I don't think Brad works with Pavel and David, who should stay together.
It's still relatively early, but clearly, at least to me, the Bruins are in need of significant additions on D and C.
Finally (and you knew I would bring it up), the lack of aggressive attitude, physical intimidation, push back -- how about finishing your checks, ffs? -- is glaringly, absurdly, embarrassingly obvious.
Colageo (who along with KPD addressed the issue in simultaneous columns weeks ago):
"Charlie McAvoy is easily Boston’s best hitter, and his recent four-game suspension for miscalculating on a bodycheck and clipping Oliver Ekman-Larsson’s head has muted the natural physicality in his own game. McAvoy is only now beginning to recapture his mojo.
"Add the left-shooting Matt Grzelcyk back to the top pairing across from McAvoy, and management can similarly begin a season of evaluation regarding the deployment of Grzelcyk versus Derek Forbort pending pace of play versus physicality in Boston’s opponents.
"The best value in compensation for a goaltender may be in a left defenseman bringing the best of both, in-house specialists, and perhaps an ability to hit on a second pairing the way McAvoy can on the first. Is that too much to ask?
"Meantime, a 35-year-old winger less than two years removed from double labrum surgery should not be a Stanley Cup contender’s most aggressive forward. Yes, Trent Frederic and Jakub Lauko are scrappy, and not every forward need be the second coming of Terry O’Reilly.
"But, if Sweeney is compelled to deal one of his number-one goalies and cannot bring back a generational talent like Leon Draisaitl, then the next best thing is a significant upgrade in the toughness department.
"We’re not talking about an enforcer skating 5:00 a game in the playoffs, I mean top-six, game-changing presence, a forechecker/scorer who distracts defensemen going back on retrievals the way a young Cam Neely ran roughshod over the Montreal Canadiens in the late ’80s.
"This kind of prize is far more applicable to the Stanley Cup playoffs than any kind of talent promising a certain amount of point shares.
"Imagine this team with some swagger."
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