Bruins Notes: Boston Not Satisfied With Inconsistent Play In First Road Win

Even though the Boston Bruins defeated the San Jose Sharks on Thursday night for their first road win of the season, head coach Jim Montgomery is not completely satisfied with the way the team played.

“There’s enough to like, but also enough to teach from,” Montgomery told NESN analyst Andy Brickley on the postgame coverage. “We just need to get more consistent and how we want to play in certain areas of our game. But, it is hard to get two points in this league. We’ve won three in a row, it’s a good start to the season.”

One of the focal points for the Bruins was generating more offense which led Montgomery to change up the lines before the road trip and even with Boston scoring the first two goals of the game, the lines were shuffled again to start the second.

“We’re still shuffling lines around a lot, which takes some time to get some chemistry” Bruins captain Brad Marchand said after the game, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “But, we’re just improving.”

Marchand added it was nice to get the first road victory of the season, despite having five days off between games.

“It’s good to get the first one on the road trip, haven’t played in a bit,” Marchand said. “Definitely some things we’re going to continue to clean up, but if we continue to improve while we’re getting points that would be good.”

The Bruins always have prided themselves as a team that is tough to play against and Montgomery said they need to get better off the rush.

“It’s got to be more firmer,” Montgomery said about the Bruins’ rush defense. “We got to make it harder for people to get chances against us off the rush. That would be the number one concern right now.

“The second one would be building our team game. You saw it a couple of times. The second goal is a perfect example and the first goal, of us building our offensive game and sustaining offense in the offensive zone.”

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Here are more notes from Thursday’s Bruins-Sharks game:

— Johnny Beecher recorded his first NHL point when he assisted on Marchand’s first-period goal that gave the Bruins the 1-0 lead.

“It’s pretty special to get the first one, especially to get an assist to a guy like that … top-20 Bruin all-time,” Beecher said after the game, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “Something I’ll be able to tell my kids about one day.”

— Linus Ullmark made 26 saves on 27 shots for his fifth career win over the Sharks and his second on the season.

— The Bruins killed off all three penalties in the game and stayed a perfect 13-for-13 on the season without allowing a power play goal.

— The Bruins continue their four-game West Coast road trip on Saturday night when they face the Los Angeles Kings. Puck drop from Crypto.com Arena is scheduled for 10:30 p.m. ET. You can watch the game, plus an hour of pregame coverage, on NESN.