Jim Montgomery Shakes Up Bruins Lines Prior To West Coast Road Trip
Boston heads out on a four-game road trip
If you take a gander over to any of the social media platforms, you will see plenty of overreactions to the first few days of the NHL season.
Some teams are undefeated while others are searching for their first win but regardless, it is way too early in the season to make assumptions about any of the 32 teams that have begun their quest for the Stanley Cup.
At 2-0-0, the Bruins are one of the undefeated teams, but head coach Jim Montgomery isn’t becoming complacent behind the bench. In fact, before the Black and Gold head out to the West Coast for their first road trip of Boston’s centennial season, Montgomery has shaken up the lines to generate more offense.
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In Monday’s practice at Warrior Ice Arena, Montgomery shuffled the lines to have Matthew Poitras centering Brad Marchand and Morgan Geekie, while Jake DeBrusk joined Pavel Zacha and David Pastrnak.
“It’s a small sample size, it’s two games…we’re going on the road, that factors into it a little bit on why,” Montgomery told reporters after practice, per team-provided video. “But I haven’t seen a lot of offensive five-on-five generation. Again, small sample size, but I trust my eye behind the bench, and when I follow it up and I see it on video, I just want to try something else to get a spark.”
The Bruins may be undefeated in their two games, but the offense hasn’t necessarily been lighting the lamp at even strength, which is something Montgomery wants to change.
“(Matthew Poitras) generated a lot of offense already and now he’s getting a real elite player like Marchand in his line,” Montgomery said. “I really like Geekie’s game and just want to see if there’s chemistry there offensively. On the other line, putting (DeBrusk) on with the other two, I think is just a real good rush line, has a lot of speed and a lot of creativity to it. Again, is it going to work? Who knows?”
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Moving Poitras and DeBrusk allowed Montgomery to reunite Charlie Coyle with Trent Frederic and gives James van Riemsdyk the opportunity to continue playing his style of hockey in front of the net.
“(Coyle and Frederic are) both really good five-on-five, below the top (of the circle) players, they’re both good defensively as well,” Montgomery said. “If I wanted to, I can match them up against another team’s best offensive line, but most importantly, the (offensive) zone time that they play well together.
“And I think a guy like James van Riemsdyk really helps them connect the dots there because he likes to own the net front, Charlie likes to possess it, and (Frederic) does a good job of getting open and shooting it.”
The Bruins are heading to San Jose on Tuesday before they take on the Sharks at SAP Center on Thursday night. Boston will continue their tour of California by facing off against the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday and Anaheim Ducks on Sunday.
The Bruins will complete the four-game road trip on Tuesday when they travel to the Windy City for an opening night rematch against rookie sensation Connor Bedard and the Chicago Blackhawks.
A road trip this early in the season is great — according to Montgomery.
“To me, it’s nothing but positives and it’s not because I’m a positive person, but it’s early in the year,” he said. “These guys get to know each other, they get to have dinner with each other, get to walk around L.A. on a day off together wherever they choose to go. It’s more of a bonding time, and you learn more about yourself as a hockey player, and a team too, when you’re on the road in tough environments.”
