Bruins Discuss Importance of Seven-Game Homestand
For the next two weeks, the Boston Bruins will be locked in on home ice. Here’s why that’s important.
Kyle Ross-USA TODAY Sports - Bruins Discuss Importance of Seven-Game HomestandBRIGHTON, Mass. – For the first time in more than two years, the Boston Bruins will play seven consecutive home games.
Coming out of the All-Star Break, the 31-9-9 Bruins will face a great opportunity to increase their lead in both the Atlantic Division and Eastern Conference standings from the comfort of their own home. As of Monday, they sit five points ahead of the Florida Panthers in both.
Bruins coach Jim Montgomery acknowledged the advantage of the upcoming homestand, but he doesn’t want the team to get lost in the big picture.
“We’re gonna be able to be at home and getting a little bit of a rhythm here,” Montgomery said. “We just go game by game. We just care about staying in the moment, thinking about Calgary for tomorrow, getting back on the right side of things and playing the right way.”
The Bruins take on the Calgary Flames on Tuesday and will play six more games over the following 13 days. The home stand will lead into a four-game road swing through the Pacific Northwest before returning home to face the Vegas Golden Knights on Feb. 29.
At that point, there will be just a month-and-a-half remaining in the regular season, which isn’t lost upon the Bruins players.
“The second half goes super quick,” Bruins forward David Pastrnak said, fresh off his return from All-Star Weekend in Toronto. “The first half of the season is long, so usually the first half kind of takes a while to get going, but once you get after the All-Star Break, the games just fall on you, and all of a sudden, April is around the corner.”
The Bruins get to enter this stretch healthier as well. The break gave Jake DeBrusk, Derek Forbort and Matt Poitras time to heal from undisclosed injuries. All three practiced on Monday, but they’re not guaranteed to return on Tuesday, according to Montgomery. Even if any or all don’t play, they’re close.
With the pieces coming into place, the next two weeks could go a long way for this Bruins team, and they’ve had it circled on the calendar.
“I can’t remember if we’ve had a longer homestand,” Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy said. “So I saw that one when we were coming into this month, and you get excited. … Home games are important. We have amazing fans here and we love to play at home, so we definitely want to make the most of these games here to try and get as many wins as we can.”
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