Coaching decisions come into question after epic failure
Montgomery never came to grips with depth at hand
The Bruins’ depth was a good problem to have, we all thought. But good problems are still problems that require solutions.
And in the end, the Bruins had so much depth that they didn’t know what to do with it. Literally.
As we sit here on the Day After, sifting through the wreckage of the B’s shattered dreams and firstround series loss to what — according to the league standings — was the worst team in the playoffs, that’s what comes to mind.
The B’s team that would eventually win a record 65 games was buoyed by some strong additions at the trade deadline by GM Don Sweeney, but coach Jim Montgomery never figured out what his best lineup and line combinations were.
As late as Game 7, Montgomery was still experimenting with his combos, trying out a line of Tyler Bertuzzi with Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand for the first time in the playoffs after they played a total of 7:06 together in the regular season. Sadly but yet fittingly, that unit was on the ice for the overtime game-winner that Florida’s Carter Verhaege scored.
The fatal fluidity of the line combinations was partly beyond Montgomery’s control. He never had a fully healthy team down the stretch to really evaluate it all. The B’s lost Taylor Hall to injury on Feb. 25 and he did not return until the final three games of the regular season. Nick Foligno was lost to injury from Feb. 28 until the end of the season. Bergeron was rested for four games down the stretch before suffering a herniated disc in Game
82. David Krejci missed the final six games to injury.
There was little opportunity for vital trial-and-error for Montgomery down the stretch with a full, healthy roster at his disposal.
Still, there were some real head-scratching decisions. The one that sticks out is the one Montgomery himself acknowledged as a regret in the immediate aftermath of the Game
7. That was his decision in Game 5, when the Bruins had a chance to end the series in five games at home, to start with an untested line of Bertuzzi, Bergeron and David Pastrnak. It would have been an interesting concept if it was tried out in say, Game 67 of the regular season, but not in a playoff series and not when Bergeron was returning to play after missing the first four games with what we now know is herniated disc in his back.
Familiarity should have been a paramount consideration in that situation. Instead, it was quick-striking disaster. The Panthers scored the first goal of the game against that line off a Bertuzzi turnover and the
B’s were playing catch-up all night.
There were other questionable calls. Montgomery’s decision in Game 5 to go with rookie Jakub Lauko over Trent Frederic proved costly, with Lauko getting whistled for two penalties, one that produced a Florida go-ahead goal in the third period. Then there was the decision to stick with Marchand-BergeronBertuzzi line till the bitter end in Game 7, despite the fact that it had little going all night and Jake DeBrusk, the right wing on that line for most of the season, was there to be inserted.
And then there was the biggest depth mismanagement of all — the goaltending. We’re not a fan of alternating the goalies just like they did in the regular season. We also find it understandable that the brain trust — and goalie decisions these days are made by committee, apparently — would choose to go back with Linus Ullmark in Game 5. But Game 6 would have been the perfect opportunity to go with Jeremy Swayman after Ullmark’s glove hand looked a little slow on a couple of goals allowed in Game 5, not to mention Ullmark’s game-ending giveaway that very well could have been fatigue-fueled. Swayman would have been perfectly capable of winning Game 6. If not, they could have gone back with a rested Ullmark for Game 7.
And if Ullmark was suffering from a “debilitating and painful injury,” as ESPN’s Kevin Weekes reported on Monday, the decision to stick with him at any point would have been even more egregious. However bad the malady was, there’s plenty of smoke around the injury theory, of course. He left Game 81 in the third period with a lower body injury and did not make the trip to Montreal for the regular season finale with the all the other regulars. Ullmark was also unavailable to reporters after his win in Game 4 of the Florida series because he was receiving medical treatment. If Ullmark was indeed badly hurt, it made no sense not to go with a goalie in Swayman who went 24-6-4 with a .920 save percentage and a 2.27 GAA.
This is not to let the players off the hook. Montgomery didn’t tell Hampus Lindholm to airmail the puck into the stands in Game 6 or foul off a glittering onetimer chance in Game 7. He didn’t tell his wings to continually lose battles along the boards and at the blue line, like Garnet Hathaway and Frederic did in Game 7 on the Panthers’ second goal.
But the fact of the matter is the coach didn’t fully suss out the best way to utilize the enviable depth available to him. And considering the age of some key players, the coming salary cap crunch and the draft capital it took to purchase that depth, there’s no telling when the Bruins will have that “good problem” again.