At Monday’s practice, Jim Montgomery left the Boston Bruins with an ear-splitting message.
The players were forced to s upkate sprints and the coach yelled at them to indicate how upset he was. Following the game, he cited a number of reasons for this, including the fact that the Bruins were unprepared for practice and that they are far from playoff-ready, as well as the fact that they had lost two straight close games.
Montgomery once yelled at his players, “Wake the f— up!”
The Boston Bruins want to win a Stanley Cup, or at least advance deep in the postseason. Therefore, by halting the players in their tracks and reminding them of the stakes, Montgomery provided some clarity. Losses resulting from late-game errors (3-2 on Thursday against the New York Rangers and 3-2 on Saturday against the Philadelphia Flyers) are not encouraging, and Boston needs to prepare for the high-stress situations that are anticipated to arise frequently during the postseason. It was the perfect time for Montgomery to make it clear to his squad that nothing will be simple going forward, with ten games remaining in the regular season.
Watching Games 5, 6, and 7 of their first-round 2023 Playoff series disaster against the Florida Panthers last season—after setting a record with 65 victories during the regular season and holding a 3-1 series advantage—might be beneficial for the players if they need one more reminder. Put another way, it’s GO TIME, and the Bruins should approach everything they do every day with the intention of getting an advantage, winning the close games, and not taking practices lightly.
In the players’ defense, it wasn’t like they showed no effort against the Rangers and Flyers. They did, for the most part. This is more about going all-in to that gritty, hard-nosed style and mindset because the intensity of games picks up exponentially from here.
In more of a cooled-down state after practice, Montgomery offered some humor concerning his earlier outburst and shouldered some of the blame.
“Sometimes I like to stretch my vocal cords, you know,” he said. “Grab you guys’ (the media) attention, seeing if they’re reaching you guys up there (in the stands). … In all seriousness, I hated the way we finished the game in Philly. It was a good hockey game. It was playoff intensity, with physicality to it. I don’t think I’ve done a good enough job of teaching the details and game management that we need.”
Sure enough, the loss to the Flyers occurred because a no-look drop pass in the offensive zone by Danton Heinen landed on the stick of Philadelphia’s Tyson Foerster, who, after a give-and-go on a 3-on-2 with Ryan Poehling, scored the winning goal with 1:29 remaining. That’s a great example of the game management problem the coach talked about. It’s a matter of not giving up puck possession at such a crucial time, and to do that, they’ve got to know where their teammates are when they’re are passing to them.
The winner of today’s Bruins (41-16-15, 97 points) at Panthers (46-20-5, 97) game will take over sole possession of first place in the Atlantic Division. A handful of other teams are in the best-league-record sweepstakes — the Vancouver Canucks (45-18-8, 98), New York Rangers (47-20-4, 98), Colorado Avalanche (46-20-5, 97), and Dallas Stars (44-19-9, 97).
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