Bruins Notes: Jim Montgomery Explains His Overtime Philosophy

The Boston Bruins aren’t short on overtime experience this season.

The Bruins on Thursday went to an extra frame for a second consecutive night — and fifth time in the last six games — but unlike in Edmonton, Boston suffered a 3-2 overtime defeat to the Calgary Flames at Scotiabank Saddledome.

Boston in total has gone to overtime 20 times this season, posting an 8-12 record in those games. The fourth stanza can present its challenges with play switching to 3-on-3, and Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery believes his team can be better in that area when the stakes get even greater.

“We’ve had our struggles 3-on-3 and again tonight didn’t go our way,” Montgomery told NESN’s Andy Brickley, as seen on the network’s postgame coverage. “We talk a lot about our angling and angling above pucks and making sure we never fall below it.”

The Bruins certainly had their chances to punctuate a come-from-behind win against the Flames, especially when David Pastrnak and Charlie McAvoy found themselves on a 2-on-1 just prior to Nazem Kadri’s game-winning goal.

But Flames goaltender Jacob Markstrom turned aside Pastrnak’s shot and with Pastrnak and McAvoy caught behind the goal line, the Flames took off on a 3-on-1 the other way with Kadri finishing it off.

The Bruins, who got off to a sluggish start, still got a point out of the defeat — it put Boston just ahead of the New York Rangers for the top spot in the Eastern Conference — but that didn’t completely satisfy Montgomery.

“We got better throughout the game,” Montgomery said. “We got a point, like to finish that off in overtime.”

Charlie Coyle had a different way of looking at the overtime result, especially with the Bruins having yet to lose a road game in regulation on the road since the calendar flipped to the new year.

“I think that’s a decent part of our game where you go on the road, it’s not always easy, especially if you’re playing a back-to-back or not, it’s always going to be a tough one in someone else’s building,” Coyle told reporters, as seen on NESN postgame coverage. “But just to play the right way, give a gutsy effort and play well for the most part. There’s going to be lapses as we talked about. But to grind it out if you have to, whatever the game calls for and get these points.

“All these points add up. And we want to make sure we kind of rack up as many as we can, and sometimes you got to grind your way to do that. It kind of stings when you don’t get the full two, but you can’t really fault our effort too much.”

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

— Coyle paced the offensive effort with two goals, including the game-tying tally 2:33 into the third period. Coyle now has 20 goals on the season, just the second time in his career he reached that mark. He’s now just one goal shy of tying his career high, which came during the 2015-16 season with the Minnesota Wild.

— The Bruins were without two of their top four defensemen since Hampus Lindholm didn’t travel on the road trip and Matt Grzlecyk sat out against the Flames due to a lower-body injury he suffered in the win over the Oilers.

That put Kevin Shattenkirk back into the lineup while Mason Lohrei, who logged the second most ice time among Bruins defensemen behind McAvoy, and Parker Wotherspoon assumed bigger roles.

“To make the game simple for themselves, move the puck to the first outlet and just be ready to compete,” Montgomery said of his message to the defensemen with Lindholm and Grzlecyk out. “I think Lohrei and Wotherspoon are doing a great job of that.”

— The last time Linus Ullmark was in net at Scotiabank Saddledome, the Bruins goaltender made an astounding 54 saves. Ullmark didn’t face nearly the same workload Thursday, but provided a few stellar glove saves in the loss. He finished with 26 stops.

— Anthony Richard is making his mark in short time with the Bruins. He assisted on Coyle’s third-period goal and now has three points in his last four games.

“I always thought my offensive game would bring me to the NHL,” Richard told reporters, as seen on NESN postgame coverage. “… Just keep building that defensive game and always got that offensive touch since I’ve been young.”

— The Bruins continue their road trip through western Canada on Saturday when they face the Vancouver Canucks. Puck drop from Rogers Arena is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET, and you can watch the game, plus an hour of pregame coverage, on NESN.