The lack of pushback big issue for Bruins
ELMONT, N.Y. — Jim Montgomery was simmering beneath the surface, but he wasn’t ready to burn all the copies of the Bruins’ 5-1 loss to the Islanders at UBS Arena Saturday night.
The Bruins’ coach wasn’t about to go all nuclear on his charges, either.
“It’s a little late in the year to be reading them the riot act,” said Montgomery. “We’ve got to get to our game and we didn’t get to our game, so I just try to be honest with them. We will review the tape because that’s our job and we’ll see if there’s anything of value to show our team.”
It’ll likely be two thumbsdown on this film review because the Bruins’ effort, save for the man charged with making the saves, was lacking.
The Islanders started quickly and outhustled and outchanced the Bruins at every turn. Boston’s forechecking wasn’t aggressive, its backchecking was haphazard, and the lack of physicality, particularly on Linus Ullmark’s doorstep, was glaring.
After Kyle Palmieri completed his first-period hat trick in less than 13 minutes, the Bruins became less engaged rather than more enraged.
“First period, just so we had to be more emotionally engaged and needed to have a better response. We knew that that first period wasn’t acceptable by our standards,” said Brad Marchand.
Instead of shaking off bad shifts and having short memories, one bad twirl leaked into the next, a pattern that can’t happen, said Brandon Carlo.
“I think it’s just about putting the last shift behind you when you can. We didn’t do a well enough job of that,” said the defenseman. “You can see that throughout games when one shift comes in and you gain a little bit of momentum from there, it can kind of start to have that snowball effect in the opposite direction, too. So, we needed that push, but we didn’t really give it.”
New York was able to break out of its end with ease as the Bruins gave up numerous odd
man rushes. When the Boston blue liners pinched, the Islanders punched. And these were no glancing blows.
Other than the first of Palmieri’s three strikes, Ullmark was hung out to dry by his defense.
Boston’s Vezina Trophy-winning goalie was in position to make the first save, but when there was a rebound, there was always a blue shirt in position to cash in. Whether it was Palmieri stationed at a post or Brock Nelson steaming down the slot, there was rarely a Bruin in position to make him uncomfortable.
“I think when we have our opportunities to keep the puck out in the neutral zone or keep it out of our defensive zone, we need to do a little bit better job there,” said Carlo. “But our transition to defense definitely needs to be a little bit better. That can start with the defensemen on those rush reads, communicating better with the forwards on which guy to take or whether that be the wide guy or kind of pressure the puck. So, it starts there and then once it starts in front of the net, we just need to do a better job boxing out bodies and having all five of our guys kind of converge more to that front area.”
With the trade deadline creeping up (3 p.m. Friday), high on the Bruins’ wish list is a smashmouth defender — a middle linebacker-type who will clog passing lanes and clobber skaters camping out in front of the net.
Among the top defensemen who could be wearing a different jersey come Saturday are Noah Hanifin (Flames), Matt Dumba (Coyotes), Sean Walker (Flyers), Joel Edmundson (Capitals), and David Savard (Canadiens).
The alarming number of odd-man rushes allowed has been a problem for several stretches this season for the Black and Gold. When it happens during the three-on-three overtime sessions, it’s somewhat understandable. When it happens at five-on-five, it’s unacceptable.
“We need to back the D up a little bit better. Part of our system is we need to have a third guy high at all times and four and five need to reload,” said Marchand. “There’s a lot of different factors that go into having that many odd-man rushes, but we definitely need to be better there.”
It didn’t help that Pavel Zacha left after the first period with a lower-body injury, forcing Montgomery to mix and match his line combinations.
If Zacha is out for an extended period, the Bruins may need to add reinforcements via the trade market.
Among the forwards who could be available are Adam Henrique (Ducks), Pavel Buchnevich (Blues), and Jake Guentzel (Penguins).
The Bruins (35-13-14), who entered Sunday tied for second in the league standings with 84 points, won’t have much time to work on their deficiencies, with four games this week, starting Monday in Toronto.