When Joe Sacco moved into the head coach’s office after taking over for Jim Montgomery, he put the blender back in the cabinet for a little while.
After weeks of Montgomery shaking up his lines on an almost daily basis as he tried in vain to spark the Bruins, Sacco seemed intent on mostly leaving things alone and giving the lineup a chance to find some stability and familiarity.
In recent games, Sacco has started to tinker a little more. But whereas Montgomery’s lineup blender seemed to be fried, Sacco now seems to be pressing all the right buttons, helping Boston to a 6-2-0 record since he took over.
For example, take Wednesday’s 4-2 win in Chicago, which gave the Bruins their first three-game winning streak of the season. The game was tied 1-1 late in the first period, but it had been a bit of a sluggish, low-event start for both teams outside of the goals. Looking for a spark, Sacco decided to switch up his top six and load up his top line with Brad Marchand, Elias Lindholm and David Pastrnak.
That trio immediately drew a penalty, with Lindholm setting up Marchand for a shot off the post that led to chaos in the crease and a delay of game penalty on Blackhawks defenseman Wyatt Kaiser for intentionally knocking the net off its moorings.
The Bruins didn’t score on the ensuing power play, but they did on Marchand, Lindholm and Pastrnak’s next two shifts after that. On the first, Lindholm won an offensive-zone faceoff to set up a great set play that ended with Pastrnak feeding a seam pass through the slot to Marchand for a one-time finish. On the second, Pastrnak deked his way to the middle of the ice and put a shot on net that produced a rebound for Marchand to bury for his second goal in as many minutes.
This wasn’t the first time the Bruins had tried a Marchand-Lindholm-Pastrnak line. Montgomery had gone to it several times earlier this season, but while there were a couple encouraging games, it never fully clicked. In fact, they had scored just one goal in 56 minutes together at 5-on-5.
This was the first time in a month that they had been united for more than a stray shift or two, though. Marchand and Lindholm have developed more chemistry together since then, and Pastrnak has started to find his game a little more (7 points in his last 5 games). Maybe the time was just right for them to click better than they had before.
Putting those three together meant Pavel Zacha and Morgan Geekie, who had been with Pastrnak, now had Justin Brazeau as their right wing. That trio had played just five minutes together before Wednesday. In five minutes together on Wednesday, they matched the new top line with two goals of their own.
The first came mid-line change in the first period, before Sacco had actually shaken things up. Brazeau held the puck behind the net at the end of a shift before setting up Geekie in the slot just as Geekie came onto the ice. On the second, Brazeau sprung Geekie on a breakaway for Geekie’s second goal of the game, which doubled his season total.
Sacco’s magic touch hasn’t just been limited to those top two lines. He moved Mark Kastelic up to the third line with Charlie Coyle and Trent Frederic on Sunday, and that trio has played well, with Kastelic’s physicality and nonstop motor helping to energize two players who needed a spark. Coyle scored twice on Sunday.
The new fourth line of Cole Koepke, Johnny Beecher and Marc McLaughlin has been a possession monster (67.7% Corsi, 80.1% expected goals share) that Sacco has started to use in a shutdown role, including against Connor Bedard and the Blackhawks’ top line on Wednesday. Bedard's line was held without a scoring chance in nearly six minutes of action against Boston's fourth line.
Speaking of shutdown, Sacco may have also found a new shutdown defense pairing when he put Brandon Carlo and Nikita Zadorov together on Sunday. He also reinserted Jordan Oesterle into the lineup after two weeks off and paired him with Charlie McAvoy. Oesterle had two assists Wednesday, McAvoy scored two goals on Sunday, and the two of them as a pair have been on the ice for four Bruins goals and just one goal against.
“I like where we’re at right now,” Sacco said pregame on Wednesday. “I think we’ve created the line with Coyle, Freddie and Kasty right now that seems to be a hard line to play against. They’re checking well. I like our fourth line. They’re responsible defensively right now. So, it’s almost of the mindset of two checking lines and two lines hopefully that can create some offense.”
With the one in-game tweak late in the first period, that is exactly how things played out Wednesday. A lot seems to be playing out the way Sacco is envisioning it right now. That’s a credit to the players, who have looked a lot more dialed in since the coaching change. But it’s also a credit to Sacco, who has simplified both the system and the message, and whose lineup changes so far seem much more purposeful than panicked.
“Just trying, in small increments, we try as a staff to help the team get better every day,” Sacco said after Wednesday’s win. “We talked about getting back to an identity that we wanted to get back to. It’s really about the process. I know it’s a cliché, but it really is. We focus on certain things that we can control every day, and hopefully the results and the score take care of itself.”