Looking for a different result after a lackluster effort against the Utah Hockey Club, the Bruins shook things up headed into the road trip finale against the struggling Nashville Predators on Tuesday night.
Jim Montgomery put the forward lines in a blender, albeit while keeping the fourth line together, and tried to change the mojo while renewing the focus on “the process” of improving the team’s overall play after a mediocre first couple of weeks. But the result was a mostly underwhelming 4-0 loss to a Preds team hungry for their first win of the season, a game that continued subpar performances from most of the B’s key players and far too many gaps in discipline and the ability to finish off scoring chances.
Coming off the Utah loss where a lot of the discussion was about the head coach barking at the B’s captain on the bench, it really wasn’t a great response to a team that needs to find some positives quickly.
"Part of their culture and his philosophy is; if he can give it to the best player and the captain, then everyone can give it and be better."@mattmurley19 on Jim Montgomery & Brad Marchand's bench tension with @jccuthbert & @futamichael. #NHLBruins
— Sportsnet 590 The FAN (@FAN590) October 22, 2024
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“Just to keep working,” said Montgomery when asked by reporters what the message is to the team right now. “We cannot beat ourselves. It’s a long season. We’ve got to keep grinding. We’ve got to get better and better every day.
“One is we stick together and [number] two is we have a process that’s given us a lot of success and we need to get back to that. Sometimes we’re not starting on time and sometimes we’re not doing it for 60 minutes.”
The six power play chances for Nashville were too many, and a careless Max Jones tripping penalty led to a Predators power play goal that kicked things off. But it started even before that with David Pastrnak taking a hooking penalty just 13 seconds into the game, even though it was immediately cancelled out by Nashville taking their own penalty leading to some early 4-on-4 play in the game.
“It’s discipline. We’re taking far too many stick penalties,” said Montgomery. “You want to prevent scoring chances and take good penalties, and usually you’re going to kill those off. We’re taking far too many in the offensive zone and we need to sharpen that up.”
The Bruins now lead the NHL with 39 minor penalties taken (and 100 penalty minutes) this season, which is way, way too many and speaks to an overall lack of discipline for a team that isn’t going to be scoring enough to offset all the power play chances they’re handing out. Nikita Zadorov took another penalty as well and now has minor penalties in all seven games played this season in the kind of streak that’s been problematic to say the least.
“I’ve got seven [games] in a row [with penalties],” said Zadorov. “I don’t know what to say. Obviously, it’s on me and I need to be better with those penalties. Sometimes they happen trying to save a play or making a hard play, or a turnover and you don’t want the puck to go in the net. You’ve got to take a penalty to prevent [the other team scoring] and unfortunately that’s what happened today. What did we have 16 penalty minutes? That’s too much. You can’t win hockey games playing like that.”
But it goes beyond the simple lack of discipline and extends to so many of Boston’s best players simply not operating at their usual high level. David Pastrnak has four goals on the season to share of the B’s team lead, but he flubbed a pair of breakaway chances against the Predators including a third-period scoring chance that ended with him basically falling down as he was trying to shoot the puck.
For a lethal NHL scorer that should be automatic in those situations, Pastrnak couldn’t even get a shot on net in two breakaway chances while still admittedly leading the Bruins with six shots on net during the game. But it goes way beyond a really subpar start to the season for No. 88 and includes almost the entire Bruins forward group that has struggled in the first month of the season.
Pavel Zacha has just a goal and two points in seven games despite 19 shots on net in seven games and again smashed a prime scoring shot off the crossbar late in the game. Charlie Coyle has one point in seven games along with a minus-6 rating and even more importantly has generated just six shots on net in an offensive disappearing act to start the regular season. Matt Poitras, Justin Brazeau and Trent Frederic all have just one point in seven games, and Morgan Geekie has zero points and a minus-4 rating in a start where he completely fumbled a chance to establish himself as a top-6 winger.
It's not all issues with the forwards, however. Mason Lohrei has struggled with turnovers and his defensive play to start his first full NHL season, Charlie McAvoy has taken a slew of penalties including a high-sticking double-minor against Nashville that really crippled the Bruins and the normally solid Brandon Carlo has struggled defensively at times as well.
The erratic play has been reflected in Jeremy Swayman’s overall production as well, as the No. 1 Bruins goalie has been good but is carrying a .911 save percentage and 2.77 goals against average, which are below his usual standards.
So what’s the solution?
Well, it feels like the Bruins would benefit from finding a way to sign camp invite Tyler Johnson to an NHL contract and get him in the lineup after he showed he could help the forward group during the preseason. The 34-year-old Johnson is still waiting patiently for the Bruins to make their move and the urgency is growing for them to figure out a way salary cap-wise with players like Tufte and Jones really struggling to even show their NHL worth right now.
But beyond that, the answers are going to have to come from within a group that has underperformed early, but should be still given the benefit of the doubt based on their longstanding NHL track record. If things don’t improve then pressure is going to mount on a head coach in the final year of his current contract, and on a group of players where change might become necessary if improvement doesn’t come in some problem areas to start this regular season.
Nobody is hitting the panic button quite yet, but the response in Nashville wasn’t a great sign for a Bruins team that traditionally has done a good job bouncing back from adversity and tough losses over the years.