Takeaways: Bruins overcome defensive sloppiness in improved effort vs. Habs

Unlike their pace in Florida two nights prior, the Boston Bruins showed significantly more urgency during Thursday’s home opener against the Montreal Canadiens.

Jim Montgomery’s club still encountered their share of defensive blunders during the first and third frames. Yet, they overcame their miscues in their own zone with steady checking and a heavy counterattack en route to their bounce-back victory.

From Jeremy Swayman’s season debut to impact performances from newcomers, here are a few observations from Boston’s 6-4 triumph over its Original Six rivals.

Bruins overcome defensive sloppiness.

In front of their home crowd and against a team traveling for the second game of a back-to-back, the Bruins remained eager to knock the sour taste of Tuesday’s effort out of their mouths.

Unlike that sluggish outing in Sunrise, the Bruins established a better 5v5 presence offensively. Between a high-tempo top line of Pavel Zacha, Elias Lindholm and David Pastrnak and a heavy fourth trio featuring Johnny Beecher, Marc Kastelic and Cole Koepke, the Bruins effectively mixed speed and physicality, leading to multiple quality looks off the rush and within their attacking zone structure.

Defensively, however, the Bruins remained prone to turnovers and lapses in net-front coverage.

“I thought we were pretty good offensively today. I thought we were hard on the forecheck. We stripped a lot of pucks. We stayed hard on their D, especially on a back-to-back,” defenseman Nikita Zadorov said. “Defensively, there’s a lot of room to improve, but I think we’ll be fine. We’ve got a new group out there to tweak the system a little bit. We’ll get used to it.”

This time, the Bruins didn’t get burned by a Brandon Carlo mishap on Brendan Gallagher’s first goal. Nor did a miscommunication between Hampus Lindholm and Morgan Geekie on Cole Caufield’s marker affect them.

The Bruins countered Gallagher and Caufield’s tallies quickly behind a Charlie McAvoy power play blast and a Mark Kastelic wrister. They took the lead for good when Elias Lindholm tipped Zadorov’s shot.

But after extending their lead to 5-2 in the second behind a David Pastrnak one-timer and Koepke’s rebound tally, they nearly watched their cushion evaporate. Within a 6:38 span, the Habs pulled within striking distance on Kaiden Guhle’s wrister off a set faceoff play and a Gallagher one-timer.

Yet, once again, the Bruins quickly entered damage control and established a little more breathing room on Kastelic’s second of the night just 40 seconds after Gallagher’s second marker.

“The first period, that’s the way we wanted to play,” Lindholm said. “We knew they came in on a back to back, and travel and so on, so we wanted to get on them early. First period I thought we played really well, and then second period we controlled the game a little bit and then the third we sat back too much. But overall, it was a decent game from our side. Obviously, defensively, we could use some improvement.”

A reflective Swayman has a “boatload of gratitude.”

After finalizing his eight-year contract extension, Swayman hardly had enough time to breathe.

Swayman hopped on a plane with his teammates to Florida within hours of signing his new eight-year deal. A few days later, with just one practice under his belt, Swayman entered the crease for the first time in 2024-25.

Despite the turnovers and defensive mishaps, Swayman didn’t face signicant traffic in front of him — aside from his exchange with Nick Suzuki in the closing seconds. But while he didn’t face a taxing night from a shot selection standpoint, the former UMaine product still had an eventful first outing.

From the applause he received during the home opener player introductions to the final whistle, Swayman cherished every moment. After enduring contentious negotiations, he had more than 66 million reasons to feel at home.

“It’s such an incredible thing to be back playing and in this building again,” Swayman said. “It’s a boatload of gratitude just knowing how much time I’ve spent away from the rink, and I couldn’t be happier to be back in the rhythm of things.”

Boston’s power-play quarterbacks are showcasing their shooting prowess

While they don’t necessarily have the goal-scoring pedigree, McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm each developed a quick release over their careers. Getting his top puck-moving defensemen to shoot the puck more, however, remains a prime objective for Montgomery and his coaching staff.

Indeed, McAvoy, Lindholm and Boston’s blue-line core have plenty of reasons to use their quickness and puck-moving skillsets to set up David Pastrnak, Brad Marchand or any top Boston forward for primary scoring bids. But without quality wing depth, the Bruins will need to lean a little more on McAvoy, Lindholm and the rest of the blue-line core to produce more secondary scoring.

Through a small sample size, Boston’s defensive core has filled some of those offensive gaps, combining for nine points in two games. As seen in Thursday’s win, McAvoy and Lindholm have asserted themselves accordingly into Boston’s attacking zone presence.

McAvoy and Lindholm lit the lamp during the opening frame, but only one of those goals counted after a coach’s challenge for goaltender interference overturned the latter’s tally. Still, the shot selections provided an encouraging sign for Montgomery.

“To see Charlie take as many shots as he did tonight, that gets you excited,” Montgomery said of his two power-play blueliners who occupy the point. “Lindholm…unfortunately, his goal didn’t count, but that’s hard to stop when you have a shooting mentality.”