With the way in which the Bruins need to play to succeed, counting on protection and goaltending, they’re going to be in a whole lot of tight video games. Many of these shut contests will go to additional time and the 3-on-3.
They must be loads higher at it than they’ve been.
The B’s are simply 2-6 in overtimes, with the final loss approaching Tuesday as they dropped a 4-3 determination to the Minnesota Wild. So it stood to cause that coach Jim Montgomery and his workers devoted a bit of Thursday’s follow to some prolonged 3-on-3 work.
What was he trying to instill?
“Better puck management, better defensively and just overall a little more urgency,” mentioned Montgomery earlier than the workforce took off a two-game roadie to Winnipeg and Minnesota. “We’re 2-6 in overtime in 3-on-3, so obviously we’re not near good enough, so we have to get better at it and we have to practice it more.”
Losing the puck simply as soon as might be deadly.
“As soon as you lose possession, you’re playing defense for what could be five minutes. So we need to value puck possession again, making sure that we’re taking shots that have a good chance of going in,” mentioned Kevin Shattenkirk. “And if not, hang on to it and try to create 2-on-1s and odd-man chances that are going to confuse the other team and get your chances there. You’re probably going to give up a few offensive scoring chances but you don’t want to give that puck away once you get it back. And you want to make sure you value that.”
With higher 3-on-3 play the B’s may very well be on fairly a roll proper now. Three of the final 4 video games have been misplaced in OT. They nonetheless get a degree out of these video games, however a loss nonetheless appears like a loss.
“That’s (three) extra points right there and that matters at the end of the season,” mentioned Charlie Coyle. “So it’s something that’s good to go over and have everyone on the same page on what we’re doing. And I think the more we practice, we’ll get more comfortable out there, instead of second-guessing what the other guy’s doing. Can I trust him to be there? Is it man-on-man or is it not? So I think just having that talk, going over the video, practice, it’s going to make us a little more comfortable with that situation. And going over little plays that we can run or just having that stuff in your head to execute out there instead of just winging it.”
The approach the B’s misplaced Tuesday’s sport additionally had loads to do with a annoyed participant, Jake DeBrusk, making an attempt too laborious to make one thing good occur. After tying a profession mark with 27 targets final yr, he’s caught on 4 by way of 29 video games proper now.
I feel it’s additionally a product inside that sport, he had alternatives. Literally the 3-on-3 shift earlier than, he took a shot from an actual good space and he sailed it simply over the crossbar,” mentioned Montgomery. “And I could sense his frustration, but I thought he had a really good game. His speed was really noticeable. He had the other team on their heels and he was creating opportunities, not only for himself but for his linemates. I felt he was on the verge, and then that factors into it. He just missed so now he’s not patient and he lets a shot go. I’ve talked to him – and I’m not saying anything here that I haven’t told him – and said ‘That’s not good game management on 3-on-3.’”
Only success within the goalscoring division will snap him out of it, mentioned the coach.
“It has to go in,” mentioned Montgomery. “It consumes you. It’s no different than a baseball player or a quarterback that hasn’t thrown a touchdown in three quarters. It’s your job, right? And when it’s your job, it consumes you.”….
The B’s have been leaning closely on their high gamers like David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand to hold the offense. With secondary scoring laborious to search out, the B’s are ranked sixteenth within the 32-team league on targets for (3.17), completely mediocre in that division.
But that’s not what issues Montgomery.
“We’re not too concerned that it’s down. We expected it to be down,” mentioned Montgomery. “We are a little more concerned with how hard we are defensively. That’s a bigger concern to be honest. Because that’s an area where we thought is teachable, and also myself and the coaching staff, we need to be better to make sure we’re firm and hard and not giving up as many quality chances as we are.”
Montgomery mentioned that the B’s allowed seven “Grade A” possibilities within the third interval on Tuesday.
“That’s not good enough. You’re not going to close out games. And it’s all 5-on-5,” mentioned Montgomery.
Shattenkirk mentioned the workforce has change into a bit of too passive in close-out conditions.
“In a way, I think we’ve let teams dictate the play in the third period. We kind of wait to see what they’re going to bring after we’ve kind of established our game for two periods,” mentioned Shattenkirk. “We just have to be more confident in what we’re doing in the offensive zone — sustaining pressure, keeping puck possession through the neutral zone. All those things build up to playing less in the D zone. But when you do get there, you have to end plays quicker, you have to understand teams are going to be putting a lot of pucks to the net and trying to get goals we saw the other night, that second goal from (Kirill) Kaprizov (a rebound off a long shot). That’s on us and it’s an easy fix. We just have to make sure we’re confident playing defense and being aggressive playing defense.”…
Matt Poitras has performed on a line with Morgan Geekie with the Bruins. Now he’s enjoying with Morgan’s little brother, Conor, on the highest line for Team Canada within the World Junior Championships to start out on December 26. Conor Geekie was drafted eleventh total by Arizona. Matthew Savoie, taken ninth total by Buffalo, will spherical out that line.
“I’ve got twice the reason to watch now,” mentioned Morgan. “I haven’t watched in a long time. It’s good. I’m excited for it.”…
Matt Grzelcyk didn’t follow and Montgomery termed him as day-to-day with an higher physique damage. He had taken an enormous hit from Marcus Foligno early on Tuesday and left for a lot of the primary interval, however returned to complete out the sport.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”