Bruins Not Using Time Change As Excuse For Lack Of Intensity

The Bruins headed out west to California on Tuesday for the first road trip of their centennial season and after having five days between games, Boston will face off against the San Jose Sharks on Thursday night.

Having that much time off between games and adding the cross-country travel, the Bruins weren’t on top of their game heading into practice at Sharks Ice San Jose on Wednesday morning.

“I didn’t like it in the beginning,” Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery told reporters after practice, per team-provided video. “You kind of expect it. Long day yesterday, time change … all that factors into it. I thought after the first seven minutes the pace picked up and we started to have the intensity that we’re going to require to have any kind of success (Thursday).”

Things had to be better on Thursday, right?

Not really and Montgomery is expecting the Bruins to play their brand of hockey regardless of any excuses.

“I’m looking forward to our team playing better hockey for 60 minutes,” Montgomery told reporters on Thursday regarding the team being acclimated to the time change, per team-provided video. “They’re all excuses, right? I mean, we came out two days early so that we could get ready to give ourselves the best chance at success tonight. We gotta be ready to go tonight.”

The second-year coach has shuffled the lines prior to the four-game West Coast road trip in an effort to generate more offense and force San Jose to play more in their defensive zone.

“(The Sharks) are really fast. They play really fast in transition so we have to be aware of that on our rush defense,” Montgomery said. “I think as good as they are going one way, the other way they’re young. So, if we can hang on the pucks and make them defend … I think it’s going to allow us to get quality scoring chances. But, you have to be willing to hang onto pucks. It’s something I thought we did well at the second half of the practice (Wednesday).”

Puck drop from SAP Center in San Jose is scheduled for 10:30 p.m. ET. You can catch all the action, plus an hour of pregame coverage, on NESN.