The kind of defeat the Bruins absorbed final spring isn’t the type you simply “get over.” You win a report 65 video games after which get bounced within the first spherical of the playoffs, and it’s going to stay with you for a really very long time.
But life goes on, the web page should be turned and people in cost should plan and strategize for the brand new season forward. As summer time winds down, coach Jim Montgomery was moving into that mode final week. He’s spending much less time on the golf course, extra time in his headquarters at Warrior Ice Arena attempting to determine a approach to get his crew again in playoff place in order that his B’s can try a a do-over subsequent April.
That’s not a given. In his second yr behind the B’s bench, the Jack Adams Award-winning Montgomery received’t have the likes of Patrice Bergeron and Nick Foligno to lean on to information the dressing room. Also out the door have been top-six abilities David Krejci, Taylor Hall and Tyler Bertuzzi.
While there’s nonetheless expertise right here, this guarantees to be a really totally different season, particularly for Montgomery.
“We lost a lot of leadership. Fortunately, this team is filled with leadership,” the preternaturally optimistic Montgomery informed the Herald. “We have to make sure — and this is a big part of my job — that our standard of how we treat ourselves, how we care for each other remains the same. We can’t let our standard of competitiveness and caring slip. And that’s probably my biggest thing to make sure of this year, besides getting people to execute with pace and purpose.”
The B’s suffered an ignominious defeat within the playoffs in 2010, blowing a 3-0 sequence result in the Flyers. They then used that as motivation to win their first Stanley Cup in 39 years in 2011. Can such a vibe take over this crew, with all of the turnover it has skilled?
“Yes and no,” mentioned Montgomery. “For the players that were here, which is our true nucleus now, I think we can use it as fuel, because it hardens us and it should make us better prepared for the next opportunity. For the team as a whole, no, we can’t use it because we’ve got to get into the playoffs first. So our focus goes to what we have to do well in the regular season to give ourselves that opportunity again.”
While this crew understandably has its doubters because it embarks on a brand new period of Bruins hockey, Montgomery identified that so did final yr’s crew that set common season data.
“After our regular season, I think a lot of people forgot all the question marks on our team before last year. I think it’s very similar to this year, that we’re a bubble team, and that’s what people were saying about us last year,” mentioned Montgomery. “What I like is we have tremendous opportunity. I know we have great players, I know we have really good leaders. For me, the exciting part of it is ‘how good can we be?’ I don’t know what our ceiling is yet and that’s what makes this training camp a little more exciting than last year’s, because there’s a lot more moving parts … some people look at it as daunting. I don’t. I look at it as an opportunity for a lot of players to become real good Bruins for us and for us to find our identity as a team and how we’re going to win games this year.”
In our sitdown, Montgomery touched on plenty of topics:
Top traces
Montgomery has his first two traces just about mapped out, a minimum of tentatively. He expects to pair Pavel Zacha with David Pastrnak, with James van Riemsdyk probably getting the primary take a look at left wing on that line. He expects the opposite high line might be Charlie Coyle centering Brad Marchand and Jake DeBrusk.
That’s the simple half. Putting collectively the underside six – which is commonly what will get a crew over the hump in playoff sequence. They have lots of new gamers, together with Morgan Geekie, Patrick Brown, Jesper Boqvist, Milan Lucic 2.0 and now Alex Chiasson.
“Everything else is going to be a work in progress,” mentioned Montgomery. “The great thing is there’s lots of opportunity for the players that are returning, the AJ Greers, the (Jakub) Laukos, obviously (Trent) Frederic. We think he’s going to be a big part of the third line. But who plays with who? I try not to get fixated on that, even though I might have ideas. I like to see it play out in camp and have the opportunity to see chemistry with each other.”
Feeling centered
Montgomery has confidence his high two centermen, Zacha and Coyle, can do the job.
“I think (Zacha’s ceiling) is significantly higher,” he mentioned. “Not only is he physically prepared, more importantly I believe he’s ready for this mentally for the kind of minutes, the responsibility of having to be played in all situations — which he did really well last year — but they’re going to be more important minutes. But I just think he’s mentally ready. He believes that he can do it. That’s the biggest step for a player. I have a lot of confidence that our top two lines will be very good because I believe Charlie Coyle knows he can do the job and will do the job and Pavel Zacha does too.”
While some followers is likely to be ready for an additional shoe to drop within the kind for an additional established heart coming right here in a commerce, Montgomery isn’t.
“In my mind, this is our team,” he mentioned. “Ever since Krech made it official, we’d been thinking that this would be our team. Honestly, we were preparing this way since mid-June.”
Chiasson backer
On Chiasson, whom the B’s signed to a tryout settlement on Monday, Montgomery believes the 32-year-old veteran has the instruments to assist.
“He’s a real smart hockey player who always finds a way to produce and always finds a way to get in the lineup,” mentioned Montgomery. “I thought Detroit’s power play became extremely tough to check the last two times we played them when he was at the net front. So there’s a niche that he could possibly grab a hold of for our team. He’s got the size and hands. His puck possession game is really good. It’s something we feel we need to improve on even from last year, our puck possession game and how much time we spend in the offensive zone.”
Winging it
While there’s been hypothesis that Frederic might transfer to heart, Montgomery sees him on the wing, probably the suitable aspect.
“I think that’s where he’s the most dynamic for us, offensively and defensively,” mentioned Montgomery. “He’s an excellent defensive winger and he also scores most of his goals and gets open the most as a winger. We feel we’re going to need that from him again this year.”
Coaching change
With the departure of assistant John Gruden, Montgomery mentioned one other assistant will quickly be employed. But Gruden’s obligations might be divvied up between remaining assistants Joe Sacco and Chris Kelly. Sacco will deal with the protection.
“He runs the PK already and does a lot of our D-zone coverage. That’s an easy one for him,” mentioned Montgomery.
Kelly will take over the facility play.
“I think he’s really excited about it,” he mentioned.
With Montgomery preferring a three-man bench, the brand new rent might be a second eye-in-the-sky with goalie coach Bob Essensa. The new coach may also concentrate on in-season growth work.
Prospect pulse
Montgomery mentioned a couple of gamers popped for him in Development Camp, specifically Mason Lohrei, Riley Duran and, when wholesome, Fabian Lysell. He was additionally intrigued by attainable future proper shot heart Matthew Poitras.
“His brain and his competitive levels are very, very appealing to me,” he mentioned.
Poitras is in a tricky spot. If the 19-year-old doesn’t make the B’s roster, he’ll have to return to his junior crew in Guelph, the place he exploded for 16-79-95 totals in 63 video games final yr. How a lot one other yr in junior would profit him is questionable, however he needs to be prepared to stay within the NHL. He can’t play in Providence this yr
“No one’s ever gotten to this league too late. People have gotten to this league too early,” mentioned Montgomery. “If he’s not ready to be a Bruin, then he goes back, he can be part of the World Juniors, he dominates. He needs to score more goals in junior. There are areas of your game that always need to get better.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com