The Boston Bruins concluded their three-game road trip with an overall record of 1-1-1 after dropping the last two games to the Utah Hockey Club and Nashville Predators.
In the final two contests, the Bruins allowed their opponents 10 power play opportunities while increasing their league-leading infractions to 40 across seven games.
“It’s discipline. We’re taking far too many stick penalties,” Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery told reporters in Nashville, per team-provided video. “You want to prevent scoring chances and take good penalties. Usually, you’re going to kill those off. We’re having too many in the offensive zone. We gotta sharpen that up.”
Bruins defenseman Nikita Zadorov was called for hooking during the second period. It was the seventh straight game Zadorov has committed at least one penalty since joining Boston in the offseason. While the Predators didn’t score on the man-advantage, Zadorov knows the number of penalties the Bruins have been committing certainly takes the skaters out of the flow of the game.
“Some guys were sitting for 10 minutes,” Zadorov said, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “They’re not getting their shifts and losing their legs. It takes the momentum of the game and gives the other team the momentum.”
Boston went 5-for-6 on the penalty kill but gave up a goal just as time had expired on Charlie McAvoy’s double-minor for high-sticking in the second period. Normally, killing off a four-minute power play gives the penalized team momentum, but the Tommy Novak tally gave Nashville a 2-0 lead late in the second period.
“I thought that we responded well right after that,” Montgomery said. “But, again, it’s the fact we have to kill off a four-minute penalty after we’ve already tried to kill off three in the first. It overtaxes certain players. Certain players are playing too many minutes. Other players are sitting on the bench too long.”
Here are more notes from Tuesday night’s Bruins-Predators game:
The Bruins also struggled to sustain momentum in the offensive zone because they were too sloppy with their passing against a desperate Predators team.
Montgomery said the players can prevent themselves from losing confidence if they get back to playing Bruins hockey.
“One is we stick together,” he said. “Two is we have a process that has given us a lot of success. We’ve got to get back to that. Unfortunately, it’s either sometimes we’re not starting on time or sometimes we’re not finishing, playing 60 minutes. You look at the first seven minutes of the second; that was Bruins hockey.”
The Bruins return home to host the Dallas Stars on Thursday night. Puck drop from TD Garden is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET.
