Don’t expect another Garden slumber party when the Bruins meet the Panthers on Monday afternoon. The game will be a rematch of a
season-opening 6-4 loss in Florida, a result that left the Bruins feeling frustrated.
The Bruins (2-1-0) recovered with a 6-4 victory over the Canadiens and only
got past the Kings, 2-1, in overtime via a late wake-up call goal from
David Pastrnak.
“I think for us it’s all about execution and effort, and that wasn’t there,” Bruins coach
Jim Montgomery said of Tuesday’s loss to the reigning champions. “We’ve got to get back to playing hockey. I love it that we have emotion, you know. They’re a rival. But at the same time we’ve got to be disciplined. We’re taking too many penalties.”
As for the decaffeinated matinee date with the Kings, Montgomery said: “I don’t know why. We usually like playing in the afternoon. It’s early in the year, we’ve had two bad starts and one really good one. I think early on we were slow, just everywhere, right? And I think we were really slow on entries and I didn’t think our intensity on faceoffs was there.”
Montgomery’s message to the Bruins is wake up and smell the coffee. Just don’t down too many cups.
“I think your emotions can easily take over a little bit from time to time,” left winger
Cole Koepke said after practice at Warrior Ice Arena Sunday. “Especially when the games are so intense and you come home, and there’s so much history to them. But I think you have to just try and do everything you can to keep your temper and keep emotions in check. They’re going to happen, just make sure you’re going to use them in a way that’s not going to hurt the team.”
“Since then we’ve watched video and talked as a team,” Koepke said of the opener. “And I think we’ve gotten better already the last couple games. And parts of our game get better every day.
“What we go back to is, we try to play fast, play hard. And if we don’t get the puck or get it done the first time, we’re just going to keep giving that second effort and try and wear the team down, and just keep playing.”
