Following their first win of the young season, the Boston Bruins continue a three-game homestand with a Saturday matinee against the Los Angeles Kings.
In an improved effort two nights after a season-opening loss at Florida, the Bruins picked up a 6-4 win over the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday in Boston.
The major storyline was the return of goaltender Jeremy Swayman (20 saves), seeing his first action since signing an eight-year, $66 million contract last weekend. He held out during training camp and preseason games while awaiting a new deal.
For Swayman, it felt good to be home after a long, strenuous negotiation.
“It’s such an incredible thing to be back playing and in this building again,” he said. “It’s a boatload of gratitude just knowing how much time I spent away from the rink, and I couldn’t be happier being back in the rhythm of things.”
Head coach Jim Montgomery was pleased with the win, though he found room for improvement.
“We’ve got to clean things up,” he said, citing two goals allowed off faceoffs and several icing calls that resulted in goals or power plays against. “(Swayman) made the saves that he could. Again, there were backdoor tap-ins because our coverage isn’t solid yet.”
Free-agent signee Elias Lindholm (one goal, two assists) and gritty fourth-liners Mark Kastelic (two goals) and Cole Koepke all netted their first goals as Bruins against Montreal.
Kastelic’s line with John Beecher and Kopeke on the wings was particularly impressive for its hard, fast style.
“It was just nice to see how hard they went to the net,” Montgomery said. “It’s something that we feel that with the speed and the size of our team that we want to do more of.”
Stalwarts Charlie McAvoy and David Pastrnak contributed their second goals in as many games.
Forward Matt Poitras is “very close” to returning from injury, and Montgomery indicated he might play Saturday. The 20-year-old, who had season-ending shoulder surgery last February, has yet to play this season.
Los Angeles, which is continuing a season-opening, seven-game road trip due to home arena renovations, rode Anze Kopitar’s third-period natural hat trick to a 3-1 Thursday win at Buffalo.
Kopitar’s winning goal came on the power play with 1:38 remaining.
“Great play by (Alex Laferriere to strip) the puck, and that’s a strong hand one-timer by Kopi,” Kings coach Jim Hiller said. “Not a lot of guys who can do that. And to continue to do that year after year and score a goal like that just goes to show the quality of player that he is.”
Both teams will be on a level playing field with regular-season action under their belts, but Thursday marked a challenge for the Kings with the Sabres having already played twice (both losses) against the New Jersey Devils at the NHL Global Series in Prague last weekend.
Despite being out-shot 27-11 through two periods, there was no frustration.
“I mean, even though our game was not nearly as sharp as we wanted it to be, we were down one goal going into the third period on the road. And they’ve played a couple of games already. This is our first so-called real game,” Kopitar said. “You’re just trying to find something, really, and it’s one shot that can change the momentum of the game. And luckily we found it in third.”
–Field Level Media