Jeremy Swayman will get his first start of the season as the Bruins look to build their team game.
The Boston Bruins will be back in action Saturday night as they host the Nashville Predators at TD Garden for a 7pm puck drop.
Coming off a 3-1 home-opener victory over the Blackhawks on Wednesday, the B’s will look to build their overall team game and chemistry. The lines and pairs the Bruins rolled with against Chicago remained the same at Saturday’s morning skate at Warrior Ice Arena.
Bruins coach Jim Montgomery confirmed that Jeremy Swayman will get his first start of the season against Nashville after Linus Ullmark’s 20-save performance to start the year on Wednesday. The Ullmark-Swayman tandem has been a foundation of success for Boston, and it seems Montgomery will stick to some version of last season’s split scheduling.
“I can’t say we plan to go every other, but it’s a strength of our team and, especially when the schedule gets real busy,” Montgomery said. “They give us a great chance to win every night, so keep that fresh.”
Montgomery mixed up his lines in the third period against the Blackhawks, and said postgame he’s still experimenting with which players will click the best. With the new combinations, Montgomery is waiting to see tangible game-action connection from his top guys – specifically the second line of James van Riemsdyk, Pavel Zacha and David Pastrnak.
“I don’t know if I’ve really seen the chemistry yet where we think it’s going to be,” Montgomery said of the trio. “We’ve seen it more in practice than we have come in the games.”
The Bruins defensive core, for the most part, stayed in-tact during the offseason, returning the first pair of Matt Grzelcyk and Charlie McAvoy that have played together since their college days at Boston University. The two former Terriers seem to have picked up right where they left off in 2022-23.
“I think we just read off each other really well. We both like to join the attack and be good in transition. I think when we’re really humming, we sort of have that one in, one out and working in tandem really well,” Grzelcyk said. Just to know each other’s tendencies and what we like to do on the ice – I think that’s a huge advantage for us.”
In terms of Grzelcyk’s personal game, the eight-year veteran is focusing on his confidence and getting more shots off from the blueline – something management has also preached that they want McAvoy to do as well.
“Just play with confidence. Using my feet to my advantage, I think when my legs are going then my brain can kind of take over from there,” Grzelcyk said. “Getting shots through from the point is something that I’ve tried to focus on a little bit and making sure you’re keeping plays alive in the offensive zone.”
Grzelcyk and the Bruins are facing a Predators squad that’s playing with an entirely new system after first-year general manager Barry Trotz brought on Andrew Brunette as the franchise’s fourth head coach in May. Nashville is coming off a 3-0 win against the Seattle Kraken after dropping its season opener 5-3 against the Tampa Bay Lightning, and is learning on the fly what their 2023-24 team identity will look like.
“They’re more of a fast break team, more of a transition team than they were before,” Montgomery said of the Predators. “D-zone’s different, they’re more of a zone d-zone similar to ours.”
Saturday is the Bruins’ final home matchup before they head out West to face the San Jose Sharks, Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks next week.