Sometime in the next couple of months, the Bruins will experience a losing streak. Then again, maybe not.
Two games into the second half of the season, the Bruins (34-5-4) have yet to sustain successive defeats, recovering from a 3-0 loss to the Seattle Kraken last week with wins over the Toronto Maple Leafs Saturday and Philadelphia Flyers Monday. But with seven of the next eight games on the road — starting with Wednesday’s visit to the New York Islanders — this could be a chance to get a negative skein out of their system.
“I’ve always thought it would be healthy at some point to go through that,” coach Jim Montgomery said after practice Tuesday. “And frankly I’m quite surprised we didn’t go through that the way we played Dec. 15 through Jan. 2. Like, there were a lot of games where we just weren’t sharp and our goaltenders had to be great and they were great.
“I think that’s the biggest reason we’ve been consistently good is our defensive game has allowed some games, where our offense hasn’t been very good, to get one or two goals and win those games. That has stopped us from having a slump.
“Also, we think down the road that’s going to happen. Inevitably we’re going to lose two in a row, you’d think.”
Perhaps not yet, anyway. Montgomery has almost been looking forward to seeing how the Bruins would react to failure, believing pluses would eventually outweigh the minuses of a relatively short midseason swoon.
“I think it would be, but I also like the fact that we take pride in not trying to be in that,” Montgomery said of slipping into a slump. “Then we can lean on that when it comes playoff time. We find ways to get better. We find ways to fight back.”
After their 22-game home point streak was snapped by the Kraken, the Bruins bounced back against the Maple Leafs (4-3) and Flyers (6-0), improving their Garden record to 21-1-3.
“We’re playing good hockey again here the last two games,” Montgomery said. “I think we’re back to playing Bruins hockey like we were for a long time, and I think that it’s hard to take anyone out of the lineup. It just is.”
Montgomery is taking the opportunity to give fourth-line center Tomas Nosek a rest, though. Joona Koppanen, who made his Bruins debut against the Kraken, will be in the lineup against the Islanders in place of Nosek.
“Not that he deserves it,” Montgomery said of Nosek. “Just the opportunity for Koppanen to play. [Nosek] is understanding of the situation and it’s one more game for him to get back to 100 percent healthy.”
Expect more lineups tweaks. With 72 points in 43 games (1.68 per game), the Bruins are looking at clinching a playoff berth early. Last year, the Washington Capitals earned a postseason place with 100 points (1.22 per game), a target the Bruins could realistically reach by March. But the Bruins are facing a road-heavy schedule (23 games) in the second half of the season. They are 13-4-1 on the road.
“We’re building now towards how do we get percentages better to give us the best chance?” Montgomery said. “And it allows us to experiment with different things. Like, we’re playing a certain opponent, we get to put a certain line together to see if they can handle that situation further down the line. So that’s the things we’re looking at now.
“You don’t get that opportunity if you don’t have the start we had.”
…
Montgomery on the play of defensemen Hampus Lindholm and Charlie McAvoy: “The best teams throughout the years have really, really good D corps, and we have a really good D corps. When you have two guys that can handle a lot of minutes and play 200-foot hockey, you’re really lucky, because it doesn’t matter what another team has, whether they have one line or two lines, you can always match up.”
Frank Dell'Apa can be reached at frankdellapa@gmail.com.
January 17, 2023 at 10:05PM
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Wait, could the Bruins actually benefit from a little losing streak? - The Boston Globe
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