The Boston Bruins latest victory wasn’t exactly a thing of beauty, but it represented some of the things they’ve done especially well over the course of their incredibly fast start.
Th Bruins continued to defend penalties well, won the majority of their faceoffs and received big contributions from their defensemen. Those defensemen, working in new pairings and still adjusting to being at full strength, powered the victory — led by Hampus Lindholm.
“I just know he’s playing exceptional D for us,” Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery said, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “Having him and Charlie (McAvoy) back there and the plethora of talented defensemen we have — I mean, there’s a reason we don’t give up a lot of goals. There’s a reason why we have a real good offense, those guys get the pucks up to the forwards in real good spots and that leads to good entries for us.”
In just their second game with Lindholm, McAvoy, Matt Grzelcyk, Brandon Carlo, Jakub Zboril and Connor Clifton all in the lineup, the Bruins shuffled things around to great results. Montgomery explained how they got to the pairings of McAvoy-Grzelcyk, Lindholm-Clifton and Zboril-Carlo.
“It depends on who we’re playing,” Montgomery said. “(Saturday) we wanted Carlo and Lindholm together against the (Tage) Thompson line because of their speed and their length. Today, we thought we’d spread out the balance of offensive defensemen with the defensive defensemen. And that’s why against a lineup like tonight, where they have three lines that can score, we like to balance the lines out.”
Here are more notes from Sunday’s Bruins-Canucks game:
— Tomáš Nosek was noticeably present in all phases of the game Sunday. He broke a streak of 315 days without a goal and also registered his first NHL fight after a big hit on David Pastrnak. Montgomery commended the decision to scrap postgame.
“These guys don’t want to see anybody take advantage of their teammates. That’s a great quality,” Montgomery said.
— Boston initially intended to wear its “Reverse Retro” uniforms against Vancouver, but was forced to change as the Canucks showed up with their away white uniforms.
— At 9-0-0, the 2022-23 Bruins own the franchise record for most consecutive home wins to start a season.
— The Bruins have seen 20 skaters score goals in their first 16 games. Nosek got on the board Sunday, to move Boston past the Seattle Kraken for most in the NHL.
— Boston and Vancouver ended the night nearly even on the man advantage, with the Bruins and Canucks finishing 2-for-6 and 2-for-7, respectively, on power-play opportunities. That wasn’t to be expected, as the Bruins entered the game with the NHL’s best penalty-kill unit, while the Canucks entered with its worst.
— The Bruins return to TD Garden following a three-day break to face the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday. Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET, and you can watch the game, plus an hour of pregame coverage, on NESN.
