As it turns out, the Bruins didn’t completely forget how to play defense following the switch from Bruce Cassidy to Jim Montgomery.
It may have seemed that way at first. Through the first four games of the season, the Bruins were scoring a bunch of goals (over five per game), but also giving up more goals than we were used to seeing (3.75 per game). Their first loss of the season, a 7-5 disaster in Ottawa last week, seemed to mark a switch from “there’s some stuff to clean up” to “this could be an actual problem.”
Instead, it looks like that was a turning point the other way, a wakeup call that prompted more defensive buy-in. Because of the Bruins’ improved defensive play over the last week, that train wreck in Ottawa remains their only loss of the season.
Following Tuesday’s 3-1 win over the Dallas Stars, the Bruins have now won three in a row to improve to a league-leading 6-1-0 on the season, and they’ve allowed just five goals during those three games.
Suddenly, they’re knocking on the door of the top 10 in goals allowed per game. They’re fifth on the penalty kill at 92.0%. They’ve gone from allowing 11 five-on-five goals over their first four games to just three over the last three.
Linus Ullmark is certainly a big part of this. He has started all three of these wins and has been great, posting a .944 save percentage. Jeremy Swayman’s tough night in Ottawa certainly helped skew those bloated early-season numbers, so the more consistent goaltending over the last week can’t be ignored.
It’s more than that, though. The Bruins haven’t been allowing as many chances either. Their expected goals against have dropped from 2.98 per game through the first four games to 2.07 over the last three, according to Natural Stat Trick. Scoring chances allowed have gone from 34 per game to 23.67, and high-danger chances allowed from 11.75 per game to 7.33.
The Bruins are not giving up as many odd-man rushes, they are getting better backchecking pressure from the forwards, and they are not giving opponents as much time and space in the defensive zone. Montgomery highlighted his team’s closeouts as a key area of improvement.
“I just think we’re closing faster on plays, which is not allowing the other team to have as much time and space,” Montgomery said Tuesday night.
Health has certainly helped the Bruins’ blue line as well. Matt Grzelcyk now has three games under his belt and is settling in nicely next to Hampus Lindholm on the top pairing. Brandon Carlo returned to the lineup on Tuesday after missing the previous four games with a concussion. Montgomery said he was “a beast” in his first game back.
Lindholm is playing like a true No. 1 defenseman, which he needs to be until Charlie McAvoy returns. Montgomery recently called him “a complete stud.” Derek Forbort and Connor Clifton -- a sometimes very good, sometimes not-so-great third pairing last year -- have elevated their games and played more like a legitimate second pairing, with both averaging over 20 minutes per game and posting an expected goals share over 58% for the season. That obviously bodes well for when they do eventually settle back into a third-pairing role.
That the Bruins are showing defensive improvement shouldn’t be surprising. They were a top-five defense last year, and Montgomery didn’t actually change much in terms of d-zone coverage (his changes were more about transition and offense). Montgomery’s teams have always been good defensively, too. His 2018-19 Stars team ranked second in the NHL in team defense, and his 2016-17 University of Denver national title team gave up the fewest goals in the country.
Being able to win different ways in different kinds of games is essential for any team with Stanley Cup aspirations. The Bruins won a few shootouts earlier in the season. Now they’ve won a couple low-scoring, defensive affairs as well.
“I think we’re finding different ways to win every night,” Montgomery said. “I didn’t think tonight was a very good offensive game for us … but I thought our checking is really improving, and we won with defense, and of course Linus was really good in net again tonight.”