The Boston Bruins have gone to overtime in each of their past four games, going 1-0-3 with the lone win coming in a shootout. The team spent a portion of practice on Thursday working on the 3-on-3, and Bruins coach Jim Montgomery broke down what he wanted to see.
BRIGHTON, Mass. – The Boston Bruins have struggled in overtime recently, and coach Jim Montgomery knows it.
The Bruins have lost three of their past four games in overtime, so the team spent time practicing at 3-on-3 on Thursday before heading off on their three-game road trip.
“Better puck management, better defensively, and just overall a little more urgency,” Montgomery said, regarding what he wants to see in overtime. “It’s an area obviously we’re not near good enough in, so we just got to get better at it and we got to practice it more.”
The most recent overtime loss came on Tuesday, a 4-3 defeat to the Minnesota Wild. Jake DeBrusk caught some heat for taking an ill-advised shot that went wide, handing possession to Minnesota, which started a 3-on-1 rush the other way to set up Kirill Kaprizov’s winning goal.
Montgomery said he liked how DeBrusk was creating opportunities for himself and others throughout the game, but his urgency to break out of his eight-game goal slump likely led to him forcing the shot attempt.
“I’m not saying anything here that I haven’t told him. That’s not good game management 3-on-3,” Montgomery said.
Veteran defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk echoed the importance of maintaining possession at 3-on-3, while also figuring out ways to exploit the opponent’s coverages to create odd-man situations.
“As soon as you lose possession of the puck, you’re playing defense, could be for five minutes, so I think you need to value puck possession,” Shattenkirk said. “Making sure that you’re taking shots that have a good chance of going in, and if not, then hang on to it.”
Forward Charlie Coyle, who was also caught deep in the Wild zone following DeBrusk’s shot, was happy to get practice reps in, acknowledging the points the team has left on the table with every overtime loss.
The more it proves to be an issue, the more it will draw attention – both internally and externally – so between going over scenarios in practices, analyzing film and establishing game plans, Coyle believes that extra work will make the difference. Whether that’s true or not remains to be seen.
“The more we practice it there and kind of go over things, we’ll get used to it,” Coyle said. “We’ll be more comfortable out there instead of second-guessing what we’re doing, what the other guy’s doing.”