The pot has been simmering for a while, but it was stirred to a boil this weekend in a frustrating game in Utah.
The combination of Jim Montgomery currently without job security and a group of top-6 forwards that has been mostly underwhelming to put it kindly, is a tough combination for the Black and Gold. That was obvious in Saturday night’s 2-1 overtime loss to the Utah Hockey Club at the Delta Center when a number of key forwards didn’t produce yet again, and cameras showed Montgomery letting loose on Bruins captain Brad Marchand at a particularly frustrating portion of the game.
Jim Montgomery lighting into Brad Marchand on the Bruins bench after a turnover by the Bruins captain led to a short-loved Utah goal pic.twitter.com/EBjQeJr1gl
— Joe Haggerty (@HackswithHaggs) October 20, 2024
"Really happy with the bottom six, and the fourth line has been very, very impressive,” said Montgomery, a week ago in a 4-3 loss to the Panthers in a refrain that has been consistent thus far this season. “They're just doing their role. Guys in the top six aren't doing their role."
The Bruins would eventually be the beneficiaries of a coach’s challenge for an offside play that wiped a third-period Utah goal off the board, but it didn’t change a rough Marchand turnover at the offensive blue line that set the whole sequence in motion. That set off an F-bomb-laden tirade from Montgomery on the bench as it seemed pretty clear the B’s bench boss could see the game slipping away from Boston, as it eventually did late in the third period and overtime.
“I thought they were more determined than us. I thought they were more relentless, and I thought we didn’t manage pucks very well because of their sticks,” said Montgomery to reporters. “I’m more concerned about our team play. The referees did their job. We need to be better.”
It's also been a similar theme for much of the early going with many of Boston’s key forwards struggling to get going. Marchand now has zero goals in six games and is a minus-1 for the season and has been struggling a bit to find his overall game while forcing the issue offensively at times.
“It’s really about smarter puck play. We turned a lot of pucks over at the blue lines and the neutral zone, and they reloaded and came back at us with speed,” said Marchand. “If we make our plays at the wall, get pucks deep and play behind them and make their skill guys play down low…but we didn’t do a good enough job of that.”
Pastrnak has four goals in the six games, but he was far less than his best on Saturday night with just two shots on net and three giveaways while taking a lazy tripping penalty in overtime that led to the Utah game-winner. It appeared at times like No. 88 was simply going through the motions rather than bringing the level of intensity required for the Bruins to have success offensively this season.
Charlie Coyle was again kept off the board on Saturday night and how has one point, and zero points five-on-five, in six games with a rough minus-5 rating and only six shots on net in six games played. Coyle’s struggles definitely play into a subpar start for Marchand, as does the inability to find a right wing that can play on their line and bring something to the table for a couple of veterans searching for their game right now.
At least Pavel Zacha has generated scoring chances and has 16 shots on net in his six games and has been very noticeable even as he’s been turned away with most of the Grade-A chances that he’s generated. Trent Frederic has one point in six games with a team-worst minus-7 rating and slow starts production-wise have been the theme with Morgan Geekie, Matt Poitras and Justin Brazeau while Riley Tufte and Max Jones have done little to establish themselves as Bruins forwards at this point.
Nobody could have guessed that 26-year-old Cole Koepke (three goals, six points in six games) would be the leading scorer for the Bruins a couple of weeks into the season as the fourth line has been the biggest reason the B’s have been treading water thus far. But as impressive as the fourth line’s performance has been this year, there is also a very sobering other side to that Bruins coin which means most of Boston’s well-established top-6 forward group clearly needs to level up their performance this season.
Otherwise, there will be more bench fireworks for the Black and Gold and more disappointing, kind-of-empty losses in store like the one Saturday night in Utah that felt like Boston has a long way to go to meet their potential this season.
ONE-TIMERS
*One thing I can say with certainty is that I didn’t realize how physical Elias Lindholm was as an NHL player. Sure, he’s got the reputation of being a Bergeron-like two-way center and he’s done some good offensive things for the Black and Gold to this point early in his Boston run. But he’s also cleaned out a couple of different opponents when given the opportunity to drop the shoulder and lower the boom, and that isn’t something I realized the Swedish pivot had in his arsenal while playing mostly in the Western Conference over the last few years.
*The Bruins unveiled their Centennial jerseys for their Dec. 1 game against the Montreal Canadiens that will mark their 100th anniversary as an Original Six NHL franchise. Love the look of it as a classic homage to the Spoked-B as the Bruins continue to do all the right things in terms of their centennial celebration this season.
Crisp, classic Spoked-B look for the Centennial sweaters for the Boston Bruins that they will wear for their Dec. 1 centennial game against the Montreal Canadiens in a couple of months. I dig 'em pic.twitter.com/Nr4l3eThrq
— Joe Haggerty (@HackswithHaggs) October 18, 2024