How Will The Bruins Respond To Montgomery Message?
Boston Bruins coach Jim Montgomery was not happy with his team's play Monday at practice.
How Will The Bruins Respond To Montgomery Message?The Boston Bruins have been all talk when it comes to playing with desperation.
It’s an end-of-season buzzword that carries into the playoffs and, for a team at the top of its division, can be hard to conjure. Everyone believes the players when they say they want to win, but it’s what they’re willing – or not willing – to do to get the two points that has made the difference, especially in Saturday’s 3-2 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers.
The Flyers, a team just barely locked into third place in the Metropolitan Division – the Washington Capitals are on their heels with a two-point gap – erased two one-goal Boston leads in the third period to secure the victory. Simply put, they wanted it more, and it showed.
“You’re seeing the teams that are fighting for their lives,” Brad Marchand said to the media Monday. “They’re competing at a different level, they’re already kind of playoff mode. Even though we’re not in that same position, we need to have that same mindset.”
Bruins coach Jim Montgomery didn’t see said mindset at the beginning of Monday’s practice at Warrior Ice Arena and subsequently told his team to “wake the f*** up” before signaling for sprints.
It’s not a usual sight at B’s practices. It’s not Montgomery’s usual style. But, it was necessary.
Boston has back-to-back games Tuesday and Wednesday against top opponents. First, the Bruins will face the Florida Panthers – who are currently first place in the Atlantic – and a team that needs no introduction. Then, they’ll take on another squad making its playoff push in the Tampa Bay Lightning. Jon Cooper’s team holds the first wild card spot in the Eastern Conference, just four points behind the Toronto Maple Leafs who sit in third place in the division.
What Montgomery has gotten from his group as of late is not going to be enough to beat those teams, and he let his guys know.
“I hated the way we finished the game in Philly,” Montgomery said to the media Monday after practice. “And then we weren’t prepared to practice today. That’s why. Those things coupled together – not ready to start practice on time, guys not knowing what we’re supposed to be doing. Again, I take responsibility for it, there’s got to be some on the players too.”
With only 10 games left in the regular season and consistent inconsistency in their performances, the Bruins know they must get back to their grinding and detail-oriented play. That means elevating their checking game, tightening up gaps in both the neutral and D-zone and working to win puck battles with a second-effort mentality.
“It’s a great reminder from ‘Monty’ that expectations are high here,” Marchand said. “Completely warranted, especially with the games that we have coming up and where we are at in the season. We have to be dialed in every day.”
The B’s will have to prove to Montgomery – and themselves – that they can dig deep and bring their play to another level in the next five games of the road trip before returning to TD Garden on April 6.
Montgomery, who is one of the more positive coaches in the league, especially when it comes to talking about his players did not mince words Monday.
“I don’t think our team is ready yet for the playoffs,” he said.
Whether it’s true or not, perhaps that’s the galvanizing – or ‘prove him wrong’ – force the Bruins need to find their second wind ahead of the postseason.
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