The Boston Bruins have had the biggest turnover in players in the club’s recent memory. This meant the Boston Bruins have had to relearn the Claude Julien system: three-zone, two-way, defensive minded hockey. There have been growing pains, and a few tough losses for the Black and Gold. Last night, the Boston Bruins seemed to finally remember how to play their strengths as they put in their best defensive effort of the season so far. Last night’s 5-3 win didn’t just give the B’s two points, it gave them hope for the rest of the season.
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“It’s good because it just shows that if we stick to the system and we continue to play the way that we want to, then we can come back from different scores within the game,” said defenseman Torey Krug after the game. “If we just stick to it, it just proves that our system works.”
Bruins head coach Claude Julien has been under fire early in the season. While the Bruins front office are still behind him, the fans have not been thrilled with the team’s effort early on this season. Julien has had to integrate a lot more players than usual. Last night thankfully showed that a lot of things seem to be falling into place.
“I thought our first period was one of those periods where we didn’t play hard enough in the D zone, and as a result of that, they managed to get a couple of goals on us,” offered Julien to the media after the game.“But once we started playing harder and managed the puck better, we played less time in our own end, and obviously I thought — especially in the second period — we really put a lot of pressure on them and then spent most of the period in their end.
“You could see their D’s really get tired of defending, and we wanted to take advantage of that.”
Julien has been furiously tinkering with the forward lines. Last night’s game showed the fans a look at what could be a more permanent set of combinations for the Bruins. Brett Connolly on the Bergeron line. Ryan Spooner centering the fourth line. The lines seemed to click last night. The Spooner line put up two goals, and Connolly got his second goal in as many games.
“Claude came after the first period and obviously wasn’t happy with the way we were playing in the first, and I thought we took over the game in the second half of the game,” Connolly said. “We have points in the last four games. We had a tough start to the season, but we’re coming on here and we’re starting to play a little better and starting to figure out the system and each other’s tendencies.”
The Bruins are on a four game point streak as the head home to the TD Garden. They’ll be hoping to snag that first home win of the season as they take on the Arizona Coyotes next Tuesday. As long as the Bruins stick to the Claude Julien system, they should be able to bring home their first home win then.