Jim Montgomery has given some tough reviews of practices this season. When he hasn’t liked the energy of the sessions, the Bruins’ coach hasn’t been shy about letting people know about it.
That wasn’t the case on Thursday.
The fact that the B’s snapped their four-game losing streak on Wednesday in Buffalo might have had a little something to do with it. A bigger reason might have been that a Christmas vacation week crowd of families packed Warrior Ice Arena for the 40-minute practice, oohing-and-ahhing with every deke, every snipe, every cherry-picking save they saw.
The Bruins have reached the pinnacle of their hockey playing profession, but having a few extra eyeballs on you never fails to motivate players, at any level.
“That’s our best practice in a long time,” said Montgomery. “I thought the energy of our fans being there and with the guys wanting to put on a show or whatever it was, we practiced with really good pace and intensity today.”
Weymouth native Charlie Coyle was once a kid who caught a few practices up in Wilmington and at the Garden when his cousin and NHLer Tony Amonte came to town. Now that he’s on the other side of it, Coyle didn’t deny that the crowd was a motivating factor.
“It’s almost a little more pressure to perform well in practice, which is a good thing,” said Coyle with a smile. “It’s great to see kids come out and have a good time, you see the signs and sometimes they get little chants going. It just adds a little bit to practice whereas sometimes it can be a little dull if there’s not a lot of people there, so I think it gets our energy up a little bit and it’s great to see them come out.”
While the B’s snapped their skid with the 4-1 win over the Sabres, it’s not like they didn’t have things to work on. They still only managed one 5-on-5 goal in Buffalo and Montgomery felt like the team’s play tailed off after the first period.
“In general, our defensive game, being over on the right side of pucks, getting above pucks, whether it’s forwards or defensemen, eliminating unnecessary risk in our game really allowed us to control that game defensively. I thought our offensive game was just average,” said Montgomery of the Buffalo game. “I thought we could have built our game and grinded them down a little bit more. We did that early in the first and I thought we got away from that, consistently. We did it in moments after that.”
This team is a far cry form the 65-win team of a season ago, and Montgomery is leaning into the idea of building something new with this year’s squad, however painful the steps may be.
“The thing about this year that’s good is we’ve struggled now. When you struggle, you learn how to get out of the struggle and hopefully that’s what we’re learning right now,” said Montgomery. “When you do that, it helps your team develop some resiliency down the line. I think the struggle that we’ve gone through is only going to help us. It’s only going to be a good thing in the long run. It sucks when you’re going through it. Sometimes you’re like ‘I’m never going to get out of this.’ Because we’re getting overwhelmed. We used to just overwhelm people all the time. And that’s not happening now. And that’s a good thing, because you have to learn how to fight out of it and get back to your habits that allow you to build your team game to overwhelm other teams, whether its with defensive of offensive principles.” …
Loose pucks
The B’s could be getting some offensive help soon. Mark Allred, who covers the Providence Bruins, reported that hot prospect Georgii Merkulov will be getting the call-up, possibly as soon as Friday. Merkulov’s old USHL team even went as far as to congratulate Merkulov on the promotion on their social media account. The B’s didn’t announce anything. But they don’t play until Saturday night at the Garden against New Jersey and, in this tight-to-the-cap season, it’s not unusual for the B’s to wait till the last minute to call up players.
It’s not like Merkulov hasn’t earned at least a look-see. In his second pro season, he leads Providence with 14-16-30 totals in 31 games. He’s been playing center in the AHL. It’ll be interesting to see where they put him if/when he does come up.
Montgomery said the reviews from Providence coach Ryan Mougenel on the 23-year-old Russian were good.
“The most promising things we’re hearing is how he’s closing in the D-zone and how his 200-foot game is really up-ticked,” said Montgomery. “It’s not surprising that you hear someone’s 200-foot game getting better and he’s second in the league in scoring. (Wednesday) we had seven odd-man rushes. Five of them came from good defense. Good defense leads to offense.” …
After missing the last three games, Matt Grzelcyk (upper body) practiced with the team, though his availability for Saturday’s game has not yet been determined. Montgomery had no update on Derek Forbort, who has been on LTIR with a groin injury. Forbort, who last played Dec. 3, could be eligible to come off LTIR after Saturday’s game but it appears he’ll need more time.
The Link LonkDecember 29, 2023 at 02:55AM
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Bruins get a little boost at practice - Boston Herald
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