Why Bruins Have Extra ‘Motivation’ In Matchup Vs. Kraken

It has been lost in the avalanche of wins the Boston Bruins have piled up this season.

But back in the middle of January, the Seattle Kraken handed the Bruins one of their few resounding losses of the season. The Kraken earned a 3-0 win at TD Garden, which serves as Boston’s only shutout loss and just one of only two regulation defeats on home ice on the campaign.

“They were just over top of us. They didn’t give us any odd-man rushes. I thought they were hard at both net fronts,” Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery told reporters following practice Wednesday, per team-provided video. “They clearly outplayed us last time we played them.”

The Bruins will have a chance to flip the script Thursday night when they begin a four-game road trip in Seattle. The Kraken own a 32-19-6 record and sit in third place in the Pacific Division.

Getting a measure of revenge is on Boston’s mind, but it is trying to not let that be its complete focus.

“All year we’ve talked about trying to win our series and all we can do is even this one,” Montgomery said. “It is a little bit of motivation, but more importantly I think we’ve been playing good hockey here consistently now and we just want to continue building our game.”

The Bruins ride a four-game winning streak into the tilt against the Kraken and are ready for the pressure Seattle likes to put on its opponent.

The loss against the Kraken serves as a reminder for Boston’s forwards that they’ll need to track back and help get the puck out of the defensive zone due to Seattle’s pressing forecheck.

“We had a lot of hard times last time to get it out of our zone,” Patrice Bergeron told reporters, per team-provided video. “We were getting caught making some bad decisions as well. I think we were kind of too east-west instead of north-south. I think against a team that’s hard on the forecheck and in your face, you can’t do that. Obviously, they’re going to get the turnovers that they went, then they’re going to start playing some zone time and that’s when you get tired and you can’t go back on the attack.”

The Bruins and Kraken will drop the puck from Climate Pledge Arena at 10 p.m. ET. You can watch the game, plus an hour of pregame coverage, on NESN.