Home cooking helping keep team focused
When you’re rolling like the Bruins were heading into Saturday’s game against the Chicago Blackhawks — winners of 15 of their first 17 games — the nightly motivation can become a little more elusive.
But the B’s did have something at stake going against the ‘Hawks. Sitting at 10-0 at home to start the season, they had a chance to tie the record held by the 1963-64 Blackhawks and last season’s Florida Panthers for most home wins to start a season.
Whether they were able to attain it or not, those little milestones or benchmarks can serve as a tool to keep a team focused, especially one that’s on a roll.
“It is an opportunity to motivate, in the sense that here’s an opportunity to tie a record that’s part of the history of the NHL, right?” said coach Jim Montgomery after the team’s optional morning skate Saturday. “And because of that, we don’t worry about tying the record, but what it does is if you put yourself in the playoffs, you’ve got to win a game when you’re 3-2. You don’t get focused on the result, you really start to immerse yourself in the process. And the process, if it’s really good, allows us to stay in the moment. And a lot of times, when you’re losing a lot or you’re winning a lot, you lose the staying-in-the-moment (component) and you think about the past occurring in the future. And both create anxiety. So we’re trying to focus and stay in the moment and this is an opportunity that provides us that.”
Hampus Lindholm echoed some of what Montgomery said.
“I don’t think this group cares a whole lot about (the record), it’s more about the process and getting better in here,” said the defenseman. “Obviously, it would be something that would be fun to accomplish. But it would be one of those things along the way that
would be like a little tip of the cap, but we just want to focus on getting better and improving every because it’s going to be a long year. I think that’s what’s fun about this group, that’s the main focus and those (records) come along when you have that mindset.”
In today’s NHL, every rink is the standardized 200×85, as opposed to the old days when some arenas, most notably the old Boston, had certain quirks in their design. So to get a real home ice advantage, teams are reliant mostly on the people who buy the tickets.
“It’s the atmosphere in certain buildings, and we’re one of the buildings
that has it,” said Montgomery. “I think our fanatical fans give us an extra edge. The only thing I wish is that they played that song ‘Shipping Up to Boston’ in the first or the second (period) instead of in the last six minutes. Guess I should talk to game ops.”
Lindholm would come in here once a year as an Anaheim Duck and he can attest that it’s not an easy building to play in.
“It’s always been known about coming to Boston when I (was with Anaheim). It hasn’t been a place where you come for two free points. You’ve had to battle for that, and we want to keep harping on that for
sure,” said Lindholm.
Norris candidate
Lindholm, meanwhile, entered Saturday’s game in the thick of the Norris Trophy race. He was leading the league in plus/minus at plus-20 and was fourth in scoring (4-14-18 totals in 17 games), trailing only Erik Karlsson, Adam Fox and Rasmus Dahlin.
The 28-year-old Swede is already more than halfway to his career high in points, which he accomplished in his second season in Anaheim with 7-27-34 totals.
He feels that his jump in points is due to a number things. The go-go style under Montgomery, where the
defensemen are more free to make their own reads and jump into the play in the offensive zone, is a big part of it. He also felt his game on the upswing in Anaheim when the franchise was trending toward a rebuild.
“The last two years, I’d been feeling good about my game but maybe the team was going in a different direction with guys getting older and leaving the team,” said Lindholm. “It’s like anything in life. It might look like (a big jump) now but you’ve been working hard for it.”
Swayman gets nod
Montgomery decided to give the sizzling hot Linus
Ullmark the night off and get Jeremy Swayman back in action after his knee injury that had kept him out almost three weeks. But long gone are the days when goalie decisions fall completely on the head coach. Montgomery not only leans heavily on goalie coach Bob Essensa, but the training staff will also have input.
“We consult the training staff all the time,” said Montgomery. “One thing I can say is the communication here, if you’re looking at a pyramid, the communication at every level is incredible from the top down. It’s a well-oiled machine. There’s no loops in the communication.”