The Boston Bruins are back to .500 after beating the Carolina Hurricanes 2-1 Saturday afternoon at TD Garden for their third straight win. Some key decisions made by new coach Marco Sturm have helped them get there.
The Skate Pod: Has Korpisalo been the Bruins' best goalie?
For starters, he has pressed the right button two games in a row with his starting goalie. Joonas Korpisalo was always going to start Tuesday against the Islanders after Jeremy Swayman went Monday in Ottawa. But who was going to start Thursday against the Sabres was not as clear-cut.
Korpisalo did not get back-to-back starts once all of last season. Conventional wisdom would dictate that if Swayman is your starter, you go right back to him and give him the chance to bounce back from Monday’s rough start.
Sturm didn’t do that, though. He went with Korpisalo, relegating Swayman to backup duty for a second straight game. Korpisalo rewarded the decision, stopping 37 of 40 shots in a 4-3 overtime win.
While sports talk radio lit up at the idea of a goalie controversy, Sturm stuck to one of his early-season principles: Don’t overwork either goalie given how condensed the schedule is in an Olympic year. So, he went back to Swayman on Saturday.
That, too, worked out. Swayman stopped 28 of the 29 shots he faced, only getting beat late in the third period in an extra-attacker situation. He was sharp right from the get-go, stopping several point-blank chances in the first period, including on Carolina’s lone power play of the game.
If there was any bitterness after backing up the last two games, Swayman didn’t show it.
“Just making sure every time I’m on the ice, I do whatever I can to get better,” Swayman said when asked how he handled this week. “Keep myself sharp, and I just know whenever my name is called, I have to do whatever I can to help this team win games.”
Monday’s blowout loss in Ottawa prompted a big change on defense, too. Sturm scratched the struggling Mason Lohrei the next night and put Charlie McAvoy and Nikita Zadorov together on his top D pair. That, too, has paid off.
McAvoy and Zadorov have been excellent together while matching up against opponents’ top lines. The last three games have been arguably the three best of the season for McAvoy, who was struggling himself prior to that.
McAvoy assisted on both of the Bruins’ goals Saturday, his second multi-point game in the last three. On the first, he jumped up into the rush and fed Casey Mittelstadt at the backdoor for the finish. On the second, he blocked a shot that helped set up a Viktor Arvidsson breakaway goal.
Zadorov, who has been rock-solid pretty much all season, threw a game-high six hits Saturday. It is not a coincidence that McAvoy has looked better next to a stronger, steadier partner.
“They’re playing against the top players every night, and they’re just playing it simple,” Sturm said of the Zadorov-McAvoy pair. “…Just concentrate on your own game, shutting those top players down. That’s all I want, and that’s what they’re doing right now.”
Up front, Sturm has also made a couple notable moves. This week, he dropped Morgan Geekie off the first line and moved Marat Khusnutdinov up, which paid off in Tuesday’s win over the Islanders. Khusnutdinov has remained on the top line, in part because Elias Lindholm went down with an injury Thursday. Lindholm will miss “at least a few weeks,” according to Sturm.
What Sturm has done with his second line has been just as important. Back on Oct. 19, Sturm healthy-scratched a struggling Mittelstadt. When Mittelstadt went back into the lineup, Sturm moved him to wing and kept Pavel Zacha in the middle, centering Mittelstadt and Arvidsson.
In seven games since then, that trio has arguably been the Bruins’ best line 5-on-5. In 66 minutes together, the Bruins have outscored opponents 4-2 with a 54.7% Corsi and 61.6% expected goals share, while earning enough trust from Sturm to get matched up against opponents’ top lines. They scored both of the Bruins’ goals Saturday.
Mittelstadt, Khusnutdinov, Swayman… they’ve all responded perfectly to getting benched by Sturm, a sign that there has been clear communication, and that their coach has pressed the right button at the right time. That can also offer a blueprint for Lohrei whenever he gets back in the lineup.
“Absolutely,” Sturm said when asked if he’s happy with how Mittelstadt has responded. “And not just Casey. I told Mase that, Khus, [Johnny] Beecher, I told all those guys who's been scratched like, there's a reason why whoever gets the call, just like Casey again, like you gotta be ready, and you gotta take advantage of that opportunity. The rest, it will happen, don't worry about that.
“So, Casey was not happy when he got scratched. He was pissed off, and he should be, but he showed a reaction. Khus was the same way. Didn't show it that well, but he was working really hard, and he waited and waited, and boom. So, hopefully we're gonna get that same reaction from Mase as well.”
Don’t bet against it, because Sturm seems to be pressing all the right buttons for the Bruins right about now.