November 4, 2024 | 2:05pm ET
By Shawn Hutcheon, TheFourthPeriod.com

BRUINS HOCKEY IS BACK... MAYBE

Jim Montgomery

BOSTON, MA — In the NHL, most coaches divide their team’s seasons into 10-game segments to evaluate whether their club is progressing as planned and fulfilling preseason expectations. After their first 10 games of Boston’s season, the Bruins owned a 4-5-1 record and were in last place in the League’s Atlantic Division.

Preseason expectations were not being met. The 2024-25 obituaries were being prepared because the feeling in Boston was that the season was over.

Then, the calendar flipped to November.

Yes, November is only four days old but the hockey team that played uninspired, mistake-filled, slow hockey in October (4-6-1, 9 points overall) is suddenly playing ‘Bruins hockey.’

The Black and Gold are 2-0-0 in November. Both victories were back-to-back shutouts over the Philadelphia Flyers (3-0) and the Seattle Kraken (2-0) on the first weekend of the month.

Goaltender Joonas Korpisalo earned his first shutout as a Bruin over the Flyers. Jeremy Swayman kept the door closed for the 13th time in his career in the victory over the Kraken.

The two wins vaulted Boston (6-6-1, 13 points) from last place and four points out of a wild card playoff position to fourth place in the division - one point behind the third-place Toronto Maple Leafs and one point behind the second-place Tampa Bay Lightning - and into the second wild-card spot.

Saying that this is a major development would not be an understatement.

Under .500 records in October have been unheard of during head coach Jim Montgomery’s previous two seasons behind the Bruins bench. In October 2022 and 2023 combined, the Black and Gold skated to an overall record of 16-1-1.

It is early in the new season, and to be fair, the Bruins have six new players (Max Jones, Mark Kastelic, Cole Koepke, Joonas Korpisalo, Elias Lindholm, and Nikita Zadorov) who are adjusting to new coaches, new teammates, new systems, and a new city. Matthew Poitras can also be considered a new player. He saw action in only 33 games last season before sustaining a season-ending shoulder injury that required surgery. And let’s remember, at 20 years old, he is just one season removed from junior hockey and is still learning the pro game.

I know some are reading this thinking, “C’mon, they’re NHL players, they had all of training camp and seven preseason games to get used to each other.” To that, I say, you are correct. Off the ice, they had time to get to know each other and become assimilated into the infamous Bruins culture. Off the ice.

Conversely, on the ice, the coaching staff used training camp to try an assortment of line combinations and defense pairings. Let’s also remember that captain Brad Marchand missed the majority of camp rehabbing from three different off-season surgeries.

It was very apparent at the time, that it would take longer than in previous years to build the chemistry among the players that would produce a cohesive unit. It is what led to plenty of head-scratching in Bruins Nation as we watched a team filled with promise play poorly night after night. Boston was not at the top or near the top in goal-scoring or preventing goals. Be it at even strength or special teams.

The season was so out of kilter that the three players (Koepke, Kastelic, and John Beecher) who comprised the club’s fourth line were the second, third, and fifth leading point producers, respectively, on the team.

Before Boston’s Halloween loss (8-2 at Carolina Hurricanes), the coach broke up his most productive trio to spread their speed and compete levels to new line combinations. The move did not work and Montgomery and the players were hearing the question that was on everyone’s mind.

“What’s wrong with the Bruins and how do they fix it?”

David Pastrnak answered the question by challenging his teammates.

“We are not good enough as a team,” said Pastrnak after the loss at Carolina. “We’re gonna get out of it together. It’s the only way. Tighten up as a group and find a way to win games against the good teams. Sometimes, that’s how you get to know each other, (and) know what to expect. We need to get on a winning streak. Compete level needs to be higher.”

This is my 14th year covering the Bruins for The Fourth Period and although players have come and gone during that time, the mantra remained that “good team defense produces good offense.” The players have prided themselves on being hard to play against.

In the wins over Philadelphia and Seattle, Boston played the team defense that Bruins Nation is accustomed to seeing. Montgomery’s squad was hard to play against using speed and a high compete level that forced turnovers which the Bruins transformed into scoring chances and goals.

Naturally, winning two games does not turn around a season that was floundering out of the gate. There is plenty of work to do over the next 69 games.

The Bruins have scored 34 goals (2.62 per game, 27th in the League) and allowed 42 (3.23 per game, 12th in the League). It has become customary for Boston to score more goals than it has given up at this point in the season. This is best illustrated when you look at the past two Octobers (2022 and 2023). The Black and Gold compiled a 16-1-1 record.

The most successful clubs are at or near the top of the NHL in terms of scored goals and usually have a dominant power play. Boston is currently ranked 27th in that category. The Bruins have scored on just 14.8 percent of their man-advantage situations.

On the other hand, the Bruins penalty kill units have been, shall we say, less than stingy. The PK is ranked 17th at a 78.6 percent success rate when the team is shorthanded. Of course, being the most penalized club in the League will put undue pressure to be perfect on those who are trying to carry out the duties of keeping opponents off the scoreboard when shorthanded.

It was only two games in two days, but Boston is showing signs of fulfilling expectations. The team played at a faster pace, won puck battles, managed the puck smartly, and defended with discipline in all areas of the ice which led to good offense.

October is history.

November will present its own set of challenges and of course, there is the common-held belief that if a team is not in a playoff position on American Thanksgiving (November 28), it will struggle to qualify for postseason play. The Bruins are flirting with that fine line between making the playoffs and not seeing postseason action.

On paper, the November schedule should be in Boston’s favor. There are 12 games remaining with five of those contests against teams (Toronto Maple Leafs, Dallas Stars, Vancouver Canucks, New York Islanders, and Pittsburgh Penguins) that participated in the last year’s playoffs.

It may all come down to which Bruins team – October Bruins or November Bruins – steps on the ice for each of those 12 games.