Boston Bruins: Time To Practice What They Preach
Faith is getting hard to come by in the TD Garden. The Boston Bruins are playing .500 hockey. The defensive core has been hammered by injuries and poor performance. They’re 26th in the league in goals-against and dead last while on the penalty kill.
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The Bruins have a good game (like their 3-1 solid performance against the Red Wings) and then follow it up by giving away multiple power play goals and having a poor defensive mind-set. The Bruins find themselves taking penalties at bad times, and the other teams have been able to capitalize on those errors to steal wins from the Bruins.
The B’s are pushing each other hard to regain their winning ways. Bruins captain Zdeno Chara has been with the team for ten seasons, and has seen the team through a Stanley Cup and dire straits. While clearly frustrated about the Bruins current predicament, he knows what’s needed to help the B’s find success.
“I think there is anybody that’s satisfied or happy individually with each other’s games, or as a team,” offered the Bruins captain after Tuesday’s 5-4 loss to the San Jose Sharks. “We know that we can be better as a team, and that reflects in our record. We’ve just got to keep working hard. We’ve just got to be smarter sometimes. I absolutely believe in this group and these players, and there are mistakes that we can correct.
“We have good enough players that we should be playing better, and we should have a better record. It’s a process. Things don’t always go the way that you wish, and that’s why we’re practicing every day, watching videos and correcting those mistakes. You obviously those repeated mistakes wouldn’t keep happening, but they do and you just need to keep working on it until we develop good habits.”
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Those good habits have been there for the Black and Gold in the past. The Bruins just have to do more than acknowledge the message they’re getting from Claude Julien and the coaching staff. They’ve got to start putting it into practice. Coach Julien has faith in the team and believes things will turn around in the upcoming weeks for the Bruins.
“I don’t know if it’s the message not [being] received,” Julien said. “I would think not, not to my knowledge anyway. Everybody seems to believe in what we’re trying to do here. If that was a reason and they would tune me out, I’d be the first one to want to be out of here.
“So, you know, that’s not the case. I can tell you that’s not the case. I really feel good about the response I’m getting from players as far as believing. Right now we have to fix what we do out there, that’s the main thing, and every game is a little bit different focus, determination, a little bit of everything.
“We are a .500 club. We’re not in last place. We’re still in the position here where we can improve ourselves, so we can continue to be negative or we can be more determined to improve.”
The Bruins will show the fans if they can put that message into practice as they take on the Minnesota Wild at the TD Garden tonight.
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