Bruins coach Jim Montgomery looks inside offense’s slippage in search of better production
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The Bruins, who outscored the Kings, Sharks and Ducks by a 16-5 margin out west, entered Saturday with six drawn penalties over their last four games, including Thursday’s 3-0 home loss to the Kraken. That’s a sign of slippage, according to coach Jim Montgomery.
“It’s a signal that you’re not driving pucks wide, you’re not going to hard areas, because usually refs call penalties that will equate to scoring chances,” he said before puck drop against the Maple Leafs back at TD Garden. “We need to do a better job getting on the inside in the offensive zone, off the rush and in the offensive zone, because that’s usually where you draw penalties.”
That is an area in which Jake DeBrusk has excelled. His eight drawn penalties rank eighth on the Bruins, but the wing’s pace-pushing puck carrying and compass pointed at the blue paint has led to the kinds of situations Montgomery referenced. DeBrusk, who is set to miss another few weeks with a lower-body injury believed to be a fractured fibula plus a busted hand, does get to that prime inside ice.
That was a necessary element Saturday night’s game against the Maple Leafs, who had risen to No. 3 in goals against per game (2.60), after finishing 19th last season. Toronto was eighth in goals against in the shortened 2020-21 season, but 26th in 2019-20 and 20th in 2018-19.
“As a team I think they do a really good job of having layers and pressuring quickly,” Montgomery said. “Of the defense in particular, they use their feet really well to check well. They take away your time and space with their feet first, which is the most important thing you do defensively. Then they have numbers at the net, which helps with the box-outs.”
Brad Marchand views the Maple Leafs, who beat the Bruins, 2-1, in their first meeting on Nov. 5 in Toronto, as still trying to cheat for offense.
“They’re going to try to make the extra play in the D zone,” the wing said. “At times it can bite them. But they’re so good offensively and their D join [the rush] so well that you have to respect that. It pulls the D out of the zone. It gives them time and space. They create a ton off that, so you’ve got to respect it.
“They’ve definitely gotten better over the last number of years. They brought D in that are much more defensively responsible. they’re harder to play against. Little more physical, a little bigger. They’re definitely improving. They’re a legit contender this year.”
Nosek back on the draw
Montgomery felt that a return to the middle would help Tomas Nosek find his game.
Nosek, the fourth-line center, was unable to take draws the previous five games because of a lingering upper-body injury that caused him to miss two games. Against the Maple Leafs, Nosek was between Nick Foligno and A.J. Greer.
“A lot of times I use him on D-zone faceoffs or neutral-zone faceoffs to be able to buy minutes,” Montgomery said. “When he couldn’t, I had to play him on the fly.”
With Nosek back taking draws, the Bruins assigned Joona Koppanen to AHL Providence. The Finnish forward logged 8:50 of ice time on Thursday in his NHL debut and won 5 of 7 faceoffs against Seattle.
Loading up the lines
The Bruins were hoping for some secondary scoring since losing DeBrusk in the Winter Classic. They loaded up the No. 1 line with David Pastrnak on a wing, and hoped that a ride with center David Krejci would provide traction for wings Taylor Hall (two assists in his last 10 games) and Craig Smith (2-3–5 for the season) … Pastrnak entered the night with 32 goals, five behind Edmonton’s Connor McDavid’s 37 for the league lead, and 26 assists, good for fifth … Toronto’s Auston Matthews entered the night in a tie for 21st in goals (20). The winner of the last two Rocket Richard Trophy the past two seasons (41 and 60 goals, respectively) hasn’t finished out of the top three since 2018-19. He scored both goals for the Maple Leafs when the teams met in Toronto.