The Boston Bruins return home from a three-game Western Conference road trip to take on an early-season frontrunner from that side in the Dallas Stars on Thursday.
Coach Jim Montgomery’s team went 1-1-1 on the trip and fell to 3-3-1 overall after taking a 4-0 loss on Tuesday at Nashville, where the Predators had been off to a 0-5 start.
Taking penalties continued to be a key issue for the Bruins, as their 100 minutes and 39 minors lead the league.
“It’s discipline,” Montgomery said. “We’re taking far too many stick penalties. You want to prevent scoring chances and take good penalties and usually you’re going to kill those off. We were having too many in the offensive zone and we’ve got to sharpen that up.”
Even before putting Nashville on the power play six times, Montgomery opted for a near-complete shakeup of his lines, leaving only the so-called fourth line of John Beecher, Mark Kastelic and Cole Koepke together amid its hot start.
In the end, the Bruins were shut out for the first time this season at Nashville and have now been held to just a single goal (Koepke) in their past two games.
The season has been a bit of a struggle for some veterans thus far, including captain Brad Marchand, who has yet to score a goal. Free-agent newcomer Nikita Zadorov has been whistled for a penalty in every game.
Montgomery’s message to his team is “just to keep working,” he said. “We cannot beat ourselves. It’s a long season. … We’ve got to get better and better every day.”
With three straight home games on the horizon, the Bruins look to turn compete into results.
“I thought the guys were battling hard (on Tuesday). It’s hard to win in this league,” Zadorov said. “We played a really desperate team. … They scored on their chances. We didn’t. That was the difference in the game.”
Dallas has dropped two of three following a four-game win streak to open the season, including falling short of a comeback in a 4-2 loss Tuesday at Buffalo.
Thomas Harley and Tyler Seguin scored for the Stars. Jake Oettinger, whose .941 save percentage is tied for sixth in the NHL this season, made 21 stops.
However, coach Peter DeBoer saw a hungrier team on the other side. That will have to change in order to find a win in Boston.
“I thought the story of (Tuesday’s) game was (the Sabres’) execution was better than ours,” DeBoer said. “Power play included, but 5-on-5, too. And I thought they were hungrier than us. They blocked more shots, they won more battles, won more face-offs. Tough to go on the road and win if you’re not as desperate as the other team.”
A season-long issue has been the Stars’ 2-for-21 power play. On an 0-for-3 night in Buffalo, they were held without a shot on goal across two first-period advantages.
Despite a 30-25 advantage in shots for the game, Dallas was unable to overcome a 3-0 deficit and, as DeBoer noted, blocked 11 fewer shots than Buffalo (27-16).
“It seems like we haven’t really found it yet this year,” Stars captain Jamie Benn said. “I think probably tonight was just kind of a reflection of our 5-on-5 game. Just not working hard enough, not working hard enough away from the puck, supporting the puck, not winning any battles, and face-offs as well.”
In Buffalo, defenseman Matt Dumba did return after missing four games with a lower-body injury.
–Field Level Media