The Boston Bruins practiced with new forward line combinations on Monday in their last session before traveling west for their first road trip of the season. Bruins coach Jim Montgomery explains his latest changes
BRIGHTON, Mass. – The Boston Bruins are packing for a west coast road trip after starting off their season with two wins at home. The Bruins will have had four nights off before playing the San Jose Sharks on Thursday, and they follow that up with a back-to-back against the Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.
“To me, it’s nothing but positive,” Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said about the road trip so early in the season. “Not because I’m a positive person, but it’s early in the year. These guys gotta get to know each other. They get to have dinner with each other, they get to walk around [Los Angeles] on the day off together, wherever they choose to go.
“It’s more of a bonding time, and you learn more about yourself as a hockey player and a team, too, when you’re on the road.”
After rolling with the same line combinations through the first week, Montgomery is hoping to learn more about his team after switching up the first three forward lines at Monday’s practice:
Jake DeBrusk - Pavel Zacha - David Pastrnak
Brad Marchand - Matt Poitras - Morgan Geekie
James van Riemsdyk - Charlie Coyle - Trent Frederic
Milan Lucic - Johnny Beecher - Jakub Lauko
Patrick Brown/Danton Heinen
Patrick Brown rotated in on the fourth line, while Danton Heinen also practiced on Monday as he awaits a contract offer from the Bruins. Heinen spent the preseason training with Boston under a Professional Tryout Agreement (PTO), which he will remain on until he signs or the Bruins release him.
As for the line combos, Montgomery said he wanted to mix things up and find a spark as the team heads west. This comes after previously saying he would not tinker the lines as much with all the new faces this season.
“I haven’t seen a lot of offensive 5-on-5 generation,” Montgomery said. “Again, small sample size. I just think, I trust my eye behind the bench. When I follow it up and I see it on video, I just want to try something else to get a spark.”
While a significant portion of their 3-2 win against the Nashville Predators on Saturday was not played at even strength, both the van Riemsdyk-Zacha-Pastrnak and Frederic-Poitras-Geekie lines did well creating chances at 5-on-5, with the Zacha line out-chancing Nashville 5-0 and the Poitras line taking a 6-2 advantage in scoring chances, according to Natural Stat Trick.
On the other hand, the Marchand-Coyle-DeBrusk line created just four chances to Nashville’s seven while they were on the ice at 5-on-5, despite outshooting the Predators 4-3.
Now, Marchand joins Poitras and Geekie, while Coyle reunites with Frederic on the third line. Montgomery said he liked how the latter pair played together at 5-on-5 last season, and believes van Riemsdyk can complement their pairing this season.
“They’re both really good 5-on-5 below-the-tops players,” Montgomery said of Coyle and Frederic. “Both good defensively as well, so if I want to, I can match them up against another team’s best offensive line, but most importantly, the [offensive] zone time that they play well together, and I think a guy like van Riemsdyk really helps them connect the dots there.”
Poitras will get tested even more in his ‘extended NHL tryout.’ He’s put in a favorable situation with Marchand on his left while keeping Geekie on his right, but that also means he’ll face tougher in-game matchups.
“I don’t think Poitras’ gonna get the favorable matchups with Marchand on his line,” Montgomery said. “But you can play in the NHL, you got to play against everybody.”
With the next three to four games on the road laid out for these new combinations to test themselves out, Montgomery hopes he’ll have more answers than questions about how his forward group should align.