“Adversity is good.”
That was one of the main themes emanating from the Bruins locker room on Wednesday following the team’s first full practice in 10 days, one that also served as a reset after three straight losses.
What Bruins need to fix after third straight loss
“I think sort of the mindset in here, or at least one that I’m trying to take, is that adversity is good,” alternate captain Charlie McAvoy said. “Adversity is good. I think it’s something that we didn’t really have much last year. So, this is a bit of change of pace in here. You get used to winning so much that the losses, they hurt. They feel a lot different than they used to feel when they’re so few and far in between. But overall, adversity is good. We’re gonna learn a lot more about ourselves with this.”
There is obviously truth to that. Last year’s record-setting squad did actually lose three games in a row once, but all three were to playoff teams, two were one-goal losses, and one was in overtime.
This three-game losing streak looks and feels different. All three of these losses have been by three goals, and the latest came against the worst team in the Eastern Conference, the Columbus Blue Jackets.
The Bruins get a golden opportunity to get back in the win column Thursday night when they host the San Jose Sharks, the team with the worst record in the NHL. But this recent skid isn’t just about wins and losses. It’s about how the Bruins are playing, and that needs to get better regardless of the opponent or final result.
“We’re in a good spot in the standings and there’s no need to panic, but this is not our standard,” McAvoy said. “We don’t want to see it go any further.”
Here are three things the Bruins need to do to get back on track:
1. Check better
When Bruins coach Jim Montgomery was asked on Wednesday what his message to the team was after three straight losses, he went to one thing right away.
“It gets back to checking,” Montgomery said. “I think we’ve just been an easy team to play against here, not just the last three games. It's probably the last six or seven.”
Montgomery doesn’t just mean “throw more hits,” although that would be welcomed, too. He means the literal definition of the word “checking”: to stop or slow down the progress of something or someone.
The Bruins have been giving their opponents too much time and space pretty much everywhere on the ice. They are not killing plays quickly enough. That is allowing opponents to attack them with speed in transition and hold onto pucks in the offensive zone. The Bruins are not able to do those things themselves because they’re doing too much defending.
“I think the only part we're kind of happy with our checking is our forecheck,” Montgomery said. “And then if you go from the hash marks in the offensive zone all the way back to our goal line, neutral-zone forecheck included, not tight enough, not taking away time and space. It's one thing to be physical, and we want to be more physical, but the most important thing is take away time and space, and we're not doing a good enough job of that.”
Checking was a clear focus at Wednesday’s practice. The Bruins spent time doing rush drills and in-zone, small-area drills. Defensemen had to hold their sticks upside down during some 3-on-3 work, forcing them to use their bodies and positioning more.
2. Play faster
Pace was also a focus Wednesday. Montgomery didn’t go back to the “bag skate,” but several drills required good, hard skating.
Attackers and defenders flipped roles at the sound of a whistle during rush drills, mimicking quick changes of possession during games. The Bruins have not been fast enough during those pivotal moments, handing opponents too many odd-man rushes and not backing up defenses enough during their own rushes.
“We always want to play with pace, and that's the other area of our game that we think is slow, is our pace of play,” Montgomery said. “That’s with the puck and without.”
Checking and playing fast are things that come down to effort and energy more than anything. It’s clear that Montgomery believes that is more of a problem recently than anything to do with schemes, strategies or systems.
“A lot of it is myself not harping on the right things,” he said. “I think we focused a little too much on X’s and O’s instead of just 50/50 battles and winning your battles and winning races to get second support, support the puck. And that’s my fault.”
3. Find combos that click
That doesn’t mean there aren’t also X’s and O’s to fix, though. Montgomery, a habitual line-juggler, had actually been sticking with the same combinations for a good stretch of games, but he had finally seen enough by the second period of Monday’s loss to Columbus and decided to change up all four of his lines.
When the Bruins hit the ice for Wednesday’s practice, Montgomery had made just one change from the previously established combinations, but it was an important one: Brad Marchand was no longer with David Pastrnak and Pavel Zacha on the top line. Jake DeBrusk moved up to that spot, while Marchand slid in with Matt Poitras and Danton Heinen on a middle-six line (up to you which one you want to call the second and which one’s the third). Here was the full forward lineup:
Jake DeBrusk – Pavel Zacha – David Pastrnak
Brad Marchand – Matt Poitras – Danton Heinen
James van Riemsdyk – Charlie Coyle – Trent Frederic
Jakub Lauko – Johnny Beecher – Morgan Geekie
“Left the lines together for a good stretch there, and just not seeing good enough results,” Montgomery said. “We kind of like the Coyle line. They’ve kind of been big and heavy. They’re playing to their identity. Didn’t feel the other lines really had an identity.”
The Marchand-Zacha-Pastrnak line seemed to be building something during a four-game stretch from Nov. 11-20, when they combined for five 5-on-5 goals and were on the ice for just two against. But then they went silent, scoring zero goals in the last four games and giving up three. Marchand has had an especially tough stretch, going four games without a point and seven without a goal.
“I think a lot of it is puck management with those three,” Montgomery said.
Montgomery also changed up his defense pairings on Wednesday, which is not as common as his forward changes. He put Hampus Lindholm and Charlie McAvoy together on his top pairing, while sliding Matt Grzelcyk down to the second pairing with Brandon Carlo. Here’s how all three pairs looked:
Hampus Lindholm – Charlie McAvoy
Matt Grzelcyk – Brandon Carlo
Derek Forbort – Kevin Shattenkirk
“We do it with the forwards all the time. We haven’t done it much with the defensemen,” Montgomery said. “And you get a different look. I feel like our D corps hasn’t been at the level that it was for the first 15 games in the last five games.”
The reality is that items one and two on this list matter more than item three. If the Bruins check better and play faster collectively, then any combination of lines and pairings should look pretty good. If they don’t do those things, then no amount of tinkering will prevent them from looking like they did the last three games.
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