The Bruins need to redirect some of that congestion to the front on Montreal's net on Saturday if they want to even their opening-round playoff series with the Canadiens.
The Bruins outshot Montreal 31-20 in Game 1 on Thursday, but few of those shots truly tested Habs netminder Carey Price, who backstopped Montreal to the 2-0 win.
Boston needs to get Price out of that comfort zone by invading his space and bang in some ugly goals on tips and rebounds.
"We just have to make some adjustments and understand that if we're going to score goals we've got to pay the price a little bit better around the net," Bruins coach Claude Julien said after a practice that focused largely on net-front work Friday at Ristuccia Arena.
But Julien was also quick to point out that creating the traffic the Bruins need in front of Price isn't just about technique, it's also about the commitment to making the sacrifices necessary to getting to that highly-coveted area.
"Some of that net-front presence isn't so much something you have to practice more than it's a mindset," Julien said. "If we commit ourselves to going there, we'll get there. Sometimes you have to work through it because they're doing a pretty good job of boxing us out."
The Canadiens did do a good job of keeping the Bruins to the perimeter on Thursday. The defense pairing of Hal Gill and P.K. Subban was particularly effective against Boston's top line, continually frustrating David Krejci, Milan Lucic and Nathan Horton, who combined for just four shots (three by Horton).
That line was far from alone in struggling to generate chances. Twelve of Boston's 31 shots came from defensemen, and that was with Tomas Kaberle failing to put a shot on net as he continues pass up shots to the point where opposing defenders don't even bother to acknowledge his fakes.
Kaberle has to be more aggressive in pulling the trigger, and the forwards have to do a better job of distracting Price to give those shots a chance of getting past him.
"If we have more bodies in front, take away Carey's eyes, that's what we have to do," Bruins forward Brad Marchand said. "He's a big goalie. He's very good. He's going to stop anything he sees."
And the Canadiens defense did a good job of making sure he saw everything on Thursday, but the Bruins can do more to combat that.
"They've got a lot of big, strong d-men and they were pushing us out from in front of the net a bit," Marchand said. "At the same time, there were times when guys were standing off to the side of the net. We have to make sure that we're in front of them and not standing to the side of them. And even if their D are pushing us out of the way, we have to battle and find a way to stay in front."
That requires a commitment, a willingness to pay a physical price and get what Marchand loves to refer to as "greasy goals." There wasn't a lot of elbow grease on display on Thursday, which led to some remedial work on Friday.
"I think sometimes maybe you just lose that instinct around the net," Bruins forward Michael Ryder said. "Getting traffic, getting there and bearing down, that's what we worked on [in practice Friday].
"I think they try to box you out, not let guys stay in front and let Price see the shots," Ryder added. "And he can save them most of the time. They try not to let guys get there and get the rebounds. They try to take that away and they did a good job of that [Thursday] night. We have to make sure we battle through that. It's all about work and desire to get there."
And if the Bruins desire making this a long playoff run, they'll break out their hard hats and traffic cones, get back to work on Saturday and give Price a lesson about just how unpleasant Boston traffic can be.
