It was a revealing weekend for the Boston Bruins as they won a pair of hard-working games while shutting out the Flyers and Kraken in back-to-back days, and perhaps a statement was also made with David Pastrnak getting benched in the third period of Sunday’s 2-0 victory over the Kraken at TD Garden.
The B’s leading scorer was on the bench, vocal and cheering on his teammates according to the other Bruins players but didn’t take a shift while the Bruins were embroiled in a defensive shutdown of Seattle where they wound up outshooting the Kraken 30-10 in the first two periods. The Kraken predictably played desperate hockey in the final 20 minutes and fired 13 shots on the Boston net, but they weren’t able to get anything past goalie Jeremy Swayman (23 saves) and a committed B’s group with defense as the top priority.
The win pulled the Bruins back to a 6-6-1 record and into the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference, but the big story was No. 88 sitting and watching for the final 20 minutes of the game.
“Coach’s decision in the third period [on Pastrnak],” said Jim Montgomery. “That’s all I’m gonna comment on it.”
The reason seemed pretty simple in a review of his final shift of the second period where he made a bad turnover trying to skate through three players at the offensive blue line, and then compounded with a poor line change that nearly led to a momentum-swinging goal for Seattle at the end of the second period.
For those curious as to what moment specifically lead to Jim Montgomery benching David Pastrnak in the 3rd - Notice the situation, score, time on the clock, and momentum that would have gone the other way due to a careless, trying to do it all yourself, turnover. #NHLBruins pic.twitter.com/FJTnGgJAPj
— Brian DeFelice (@briandefelice_) November 4, 2024
The message seemed pretty clear: In a tight game where defensive mistakes can end up being your undoing, the Bruins couldn’t afford to have Pastrnak out there if he wasn’t going to play up to the situation that his team was in. Pastrnak didn’t speak to the media after the game, but what his teammates said spoke volumes about the way he reacted to it, and the all-important message of accountability that it sends to the entire group of players.
“Do we want our best players playing? Yeah. I don’t know what was going on and sometimes you’re so in tune with the game that you’re just getting ready with whoever you’re out there with next,” said Charlie Coyle, who scored an insurance marker in the 2-0 win over Seattle and played his best two games of the season over the weekend. “There’s really no time to think. Whatever the coach says and whatever his decisions are, there’s a hockey game out there to be played.
“But Pasta wasn’t silent. He was bringing energy; he was talking, and he was into it. That’s the sign of a good teammate right there. That’s why he wears a letter and that’s why he’s one of our leaders and one of our captains. There’s a lot to be said for that. We’re all playing on the same team and there’s no special treatment for anyone. I think that is how it should be, and we all take responsibility. You can ask anybody that’s been in that position or gotten an earful, and they’d probably all tell you it is for good reason. We’re all competitive. We all want to play. And we all need to be responsible in our own way. Monty holds us accountable and that’s only going to make us better individually, and as a team as well.”
Clearly, the move is about Montgomery doing everything he can to maintain a level of commitment to the team game, and in no subtle way challenging one of his best players just as he did a couple of weeks ago on the bench with Brad Marchand.
It is probably no coincidence that he talked about the games this weekend being the most connected, offensively and defensively, that the team has been this season. There also certaintly won’t be a firestorm of criticism for the way it was handled this time around by the head coach, and all the same the message seemed understood by the players.
“One of the things that we know here and can’t get lost here – and we’ve spoken about it – is that the only thing we play for here is the crest,” said Charlie McAvoy. “It was good to hear that again because the individual accolades don’t matter here. The only thing that matters is team success.
“That was kind of where I could turn my focus. Okay maybe I’m not getting points right now and maybe that’s frustrating. But it doesn’t really matter because all we need to do is win. It doesn’t matter what the stat lines look it. It just matters that we get the two points. Brad [Marchand] is kind of old school about accountability and he has a thing about players holding other players accountable. When Monty was yelling at him on the bench, he said that he’s fine with that. Maybe that’s something people in today’s day and age couldn’t believe, but he’s big on players and coaches holding players accountable. That’s the only way we’re going to have a team culture that’s going to breed success.”
What’s interesting is that there very clearly now seems to be a different vibe around this Bruins group after their embarrassing loss to the Carolina Hurricanes last week. Montgomery has pretty much kept the lines together in the last two games after furiously mixing and matching his combos recently, and things have changed on the top PP unit where Marchand is down low, Elias Lindholm was working off the elbow and McAvoy was back at the point (seven shots on net) where he was firing away when the shooting lane was open.
It sure feels like something has been altered in the message that’s coming from the coach, the way it’s being received by the players and consequently how they are, to a group, all playing better hockey on the ice.
Is this a temporary thing to right the ship and quiet down any talk about a coaching change on the Bruins bench, or is this something that’s going to be sustainable for a Black and Gold group that’s now showing everybody they were not nearly as bad as they looked for pretty much all of October?
That remains to be seen, but credit where it’s due to Montgomery for sticking his neck out and doing what needed to be done even if nobody is entirely sure how it’s going to play out over the next few days, weeks and months with a Bruins team still very much battling to find their team identity.