By: Gayle Troiani | Follow me on Twitter @LadyBruinsFan
Wow! This Boston Bruins team is fun to watch; boy, are they resilient. With a disappointing postseason in the rearview mirror and offseason turmoil also behind them, the players that put on the Bruins jersey for every practice and every game seem to be on a mission. And what a ride it’s been so far.
Fans across the Bruins fandom are enjoying the team’s early successes, especially since most had the black and gold lucky just to be treading water to start the season since they would be without two of their stars, Brad Marchand and Charlie McAvoy.
Currently, on a six-game winning streak, Boston sits in first place with a 9-1-0 record and 18 points in the league and has a four-point lead over the second-place Devils in the Eastern Conference. This is the best start in the Bruins’ history since entering the league 98 years ago. So who or what is responsible for the way the boys are playing just ten games in?
The first has to be the new head coach Jim Montgomery. Fans and media have been speculating if there was some sort of discourse in the locker room last season which led to the dismissal of Bruce Cassidy, but at this point, who cares? Montgomery’s offensive system is working. The Bruins have scored 45 goals from 16 different players, and even in their lone loss on the season, they scored five goals. The team is buying into what he is selling, and it’s working, so let’s move on from the past once and for all.
If I’m handing out praise for the historical start, Linus Ullmark is right there with Montgomery. In his second season with the black and gold, Ullmark has a record of 7-0-0, even after being pulled from the Pittsburgh game after giving up five goals. Montgomery said he told Ullmark he was not to blame for the goals, but he needed to slow the game down. Swayman was injured in relief, and Ullmark had to reenter the game while the team in front of him fought to overcome a two-goal deficit. The Bruins scored three unanswered goals, including the overtime game-winner by defenseman Hampus Lindholm who finished the night with three assists to go along with the goal.
Speaking of Lindholm, he is averaging more than 24 minutes of ice time per game, third in the league with 11 points for defensemen, and basically standing in for McAvoy as the team’s number one defenseman. Lindholm has made Don Sweeney look like a genius for trading for him at the deadline last spring. The best part is McAvoy is on the mend practicing with contact and is likely to make his season debut by December 1. Then we get a bonafide two-headed monster on the blue line reminiscent of Zdeno Chara and Dennis Seidenberg in 2011. Finally, the Bruins have a solid defensive core instead of one with more holes than Swiss cheese.
And then there’s the resurgent play of Nick Foligno and Jake Debrusk. Foligno appears to be the Foligno that Boston courted as a free agent in July 2021. He is winning puck battles in the corners, setting up his linemates with crisp passes, and even scoring three goals through the first ten games eclipsing the abysmal offensive output of last season, where the winger registered two goals in 64 games. Likewise, DeBrusk put the previous season in the rearview mirror. Recording eight points in the nine games, he’s played and appears to be on pace to score 30 goals for the first time in his career. There is something special about this team this year. They are working hard and having fun doing it. They are showing their opponents and fans not to give up on them when they are down in a game. Whether it’s Montgomery behind the bench or the return of David Krejci, the team seems to be on a mission.
The Bruins take their six-game winning streak to Madison Square Garden to face off against Eastern Conference rival New York Rangers. The Bruins will be without Krejci for the second straight game and defenseman Derek Forbort who was placed on IR with an upper body injury following the win in Pittsburgh. Look for either Mike Reilly or Jakub Zboril to lace up the skates in Forbort’s absence. The Bruins have also recalled goaltender Keith Kinkaid from Providence on an emergency basis due to the Swayman injury. The Rangers are second in the Metropolitan Division with a record of 6-3-2 and riding a three-game winning streak. The Blue Shirts are 3-1-2 at home, while the Bruins have a 3-1-0 road record. Puck drop is 7:30 PM.
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