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There is zero doubt that Jim Montgomery is going to have to coach a markedly different way this season with the Boston Bruins.
It’s something he realized within a week or two after the Stanley Cup playoff run ended well short in the first round against the Florida Panthers last spring, and that was hammered home further when Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci announced their respective retirements from the NHL this past summer.
The whip was going to need to be cracked with a little more regularity and control of the dressing room will be a little less fully owned by the players with Bergeron’s powerful, steadying influence now missing.
“Peer meetings where we would set players up in groups and they could communicate to another because the hard truths are the hard truths,” said Montgomery, way back in May when asked about something he was going to implement this season based on last season’s bitter results. “Your peers know where you need to be a little bit more prudent in your game or in your off-ice habits, whatever the case may be. And I think that kind of inner conflict would, I believe, help our players prepare a little bit better for the hard times ahead because the playoffs are a different animal.
“[In the playoffs], you just have to get through.’ And we didn't get through. Those are hard times that fall on us right now because of that. So that inner conflict, I believe, helps you mentally prepare. And that's one thing I would change [for this season].”
The whip cracking has already started on the West Coast trip with a less-than-enthused Montgomery calling out his team after subpar practices to open the week-plus road odyssey, and it continued this weekend with Jake DeBrusk suspended for Saturday night’s 4-2 road win over the Los Angeles Kings.
DeBrusk was late to team meetings after getting off to a slow, scoreless start with the Black and Gold this season and instead watched his teammates band together for an impressive win against the best team they’ve faced this season to date.
“We're taking steps in the right direction," said Montgomery to reporters after the win over the Kings. "There's a lot of things that we're starting to build, but the consistency of how fast we want to play, it's just not uniformed yet.
“[Jeremy Swayman] was really good. We are still a work in progress. We're starting to see improvement every game, but our goaltenders…we know it's the strength of our team and they're doing a great job.”
Swayman was spectacular making 32 saves in the win, including 14 stops in the first period when the Bruins were still trying to find their footing against a Kings team with depth, skill and strength right down the middle of their lineup.
Even more impressive, though, was the way the whole team responded to the adversity and tumult of the lineup change with the subtraction of a popular teammate in DeBrusk from the game day group. Instead, Patrick Brown entered into the lineup for his first appearance of the season and Milan Lucic replaced DeBrusk as the left wing with Pavel Zacha and David Pastrnak, and that allowed Lucic to finished with an assist on the go-ahead goal for the B’s in the second period during his rare top-6 appearance.
Lucic was in the right place at the right time grinding in front of the net, and had a Derek Forbort shot bounce off the back of his boot before it hopped to Connor Geekie for the gritty score.
The message felt pretty clear from the Boston Bruins throughout the game.
It’s time for everybody to be accountable and begin following the rules, and perhaps even a little bit of a wakeup call for a player in DeBrusk that’s been trending toward a disappointment this season.
In the final year of his contract and with his status uncertain for next season, DeBrusk has zero points and really hasn’t been the consistent offensive force he was last season skating with Bergeron and Brad Marchand. Instead, he’s been merely okay while not always playing up to his speed and skill level, and with just eight shots on net in the three scoreless games played thus far.
It will be fascinating to see how DeBrusk responds given that it was exactly this kind of tough love that soured his player/coach relationship with Bruce Cassidy a couple of years ago, and ultimately led to DeBrusk making a trade request. It will also be interesting to see how DeBrusk’s start to this season impacts any contract negotiations that are, or perhaps are not, happening between the player’s representation and the Black and Gold with unrestricted free agency looming this summer.
But that will be a storyline that plays out for the rest of this season, whether it leads to a contract extension or to a situation similar to Torey Krug where the Bruins won’t be willing to pay premium term and money for a top-6 goal-scoring talent with some blemishes on his resume.
The story on Saturday night was the B’s resounding response.
Boston Bruins captain Brad Marchand responded with his best game of the season, setting up Boston’s first goal while taking a hit to make the setup pass to David Pastrnak and scoring a pair of goals to push the game out of reach in the third period. Marchand’s play and his response to everything going on behind the Black and Gold scenes is exactly the kind of leadership and example that sets clear expectations for everybody else on the roster.
Then there was Trent Frederic bringing some physicality and emotion when he dropped the gloves with Andreas Englund for a heavyweight bout in the second period once the B’s had taken the lead with the Geekie goal.
That was a different kind of leadership from a younger player that’s stepped up so far this season and has brought some emotion and energy to the table as Frederic picked a great spot to make a bold Bruins statement.
“I think we started getting more physical, we got emotion into our game,” said Montgomery. “Give [Trent Frederic] credit for a great job with the fight because I think our bench really got going on that. I think we just wore out the back of the net, we held on to pucks. I think we really saw the type of team we believe we can be.”
More than that, give the entire Boston Bruins team credit for stepping up and answering the challenge against a quality Kings club with distractions and behind-the-scenes palace intrigue unfortunately present to derail them if they allowed it.
Instead, the Bruins played like they wanted to back up Montgomery’s enforcement of the team rules.
That’s another positive sign that this Boston Bruins team must just be ready to be a little stronger mentally and physically than they might have been last season behind the gaudy regular season records.