Going into his first training camp as head coach of the Boston Bruins, Marco Sturm had a system he wanted to install with his team. Is it going to be the prettiest hockey that's played? On most nights, no, but in the season opener against the Washington Capitals on the road, you saw how it can frustrate opponents.
Boston is not blessed with goal scorers or much depth in the scoring department. That was the case as they got all three goals in a 3-1 victory at Capital One Arena from their first line of David Pastrnak, Elias Lindholm, and Morgan Geekie (into an empty net).
On the other end, other than one breakdown that led to a Tom Wilson third-period goal that tied the game for a short time at 1-1, the Bruins kept the chances against Jeremy Swayman from the outside and allowed their goaltender to see most of the shots that came his way.
It all added up to a rather surprising season-opening win over a team that won 51 games the previous year. Talk about an opening statement. It also got the monkey off Sturm's back in his first game to collect his first win as an NHL head coach.
“It feels great. I’m exhausted,” Sturm said. “It’s the moment I was waiting for, and to grab a win on the road at a tough place like here, it’s even better. And on top of it, for the most part, they played exactly what we worked on, they played exactly how I wanted them to play.”
Bruins have quick turnaround for home opener
With the league shutting down in February for the Winter Olympics, the schedule is being condensed, resulting in a lot of back-to-back games, and the Bruins get one right out of the gate. After their win in Washington, they return home to host the Chicago Blackhawks at the TD Garden on Thursday night in their home opener. They got the hard part out of the way in the opener, their first win of the season and Sturm's first as a head coach.