Amid early season adversity, the Bruins established a blueprint for bouncing back

Entering Saturday, the Boston Bruins entered unfamiliar territory under Jim Montgomery.

Coming off three straight underwhelming outings against Utah, Nashville and Dallas, the Bruins carried a 3-4-1 mark into their first matchup of the season with an equally struggling Toronto Maple Leafs bunch.

The three-game skid dropped the Bruins below a .500-point percentage for the first time under Montgomery. In the two years prior, the Bruins used an 8-1-0 start in 2022-23 to pace their record-breaking regular season and followed that up with an 8-0-1 mark to begin a transitional centennial campaign.

This year, the Bruins didn’t enjoy the luxury of a productive first month. But between Jeremy Swayman’s late arrival, a couple of injuries at training camp and an adjustment period for newcomers like Elias Lindholm and Nikita Zadorov, the B’s likely expected to encounter some transitional hiccups to start Montgomery’s third tenure.

Indeed, the growing pains presented themselves through their shortage of depth at wing, ill-timed penalties, turnovers, sloppy passing, defensive lapses, a stagnant power play, game management miscues and declining scoring production from some of their core members. They still encountered a few of those hiccups Saturday night.

Yet, in their first Original Six matchup of the year, the Bruins finally put forth a productive 60-plus minute effort.

“I don’t think we worrying about the scoring that much, but more [about] the way we wanted to play,” forward David Pastrnak said following Boston’s 4-3 overtime win over the Leafs. “We know why we haven’t been scoring because we haven’t spent enough time in the offensive zone, and we also know why we didn’t. Obviously, we want to get better at it, but it doesn’t come overnight. So we have to take it day-by-day, step-by-step, and today is a great day. A great win to move forward.”

Unlike the first eight games, the Bruins spent the majority of play in their attacking end. But they didn’t reap the immediate benefits.

Despite holding every 5v5 edge during the opening 20 minutes, the Bruins fell behind a mere 35 ticks into the second after Matthew Knies pounced on a loose puck in the slot following Auston Matthews’ hard drive to the front of the net.

Boston’s quick-moving power play responded 2:22 later, with Pastrnak blasting his sixth of the season. Yet, facing a 2-1 deficit, they reverted to stagnation on their ensuing two attempts, failing to convert on William Nylander’s double-minor for high-sticking Pastrnak.

On some nights, a struggling team may have faltered. Instead, the Bruins responded.

Shortly after Nylander’s penalty expired, Justin Brazeau and Marc Kastelic capitalized on secondary scoring bids in front of Anthony Stolarz a mere 36 seconds apart to give the Bruins their first lead of the night.

“It was big, especially after the last little stretch we had,” Brazeau said after the Bruins overcame two second-period deficits. “It was nice for us to kind of stick with and not let that stuff get to us and just kind of go out for the next shift and chip away.”

Indeed, the Bruins remained focused as they entered shutdown mode for the final 20. But their effort nearly went for naught.

Matthews forced overtime after getting behind Boston’s D to tip Mitch Marner’s feed past Jeremy Swayman. His tying marker came just seconds after Pavel Zacha jumped offside to cancel Brad Marchand’s attempt at an empty netter.

Still, the Bruins remained composed. And Marchand had the golden chance at redemption after Matthews turned the puck over in the Boston attacking end.

Amid a 2-on-1 sequence with Pastrnak, the snakebitten Marchand batted the puck out of mid-air on a rebound to get off the schneid at the 2:26 mark of overtime.

“It was nice for the group to get rewarded for playing the right way,” Marchand said. “Sometimes you do it for a period or two, and it doesn’t go the way you want it to, and you switch it up and get into bad habits. We didn’t do that tonight when they scored late. We just continued to play the right way, and it paid off.”

The Bruins can breathe a little easier after stopping the proverbial bleeding. But they know it will take more than one victory over a heated rival to turn this early-season corner.

The ups and downs will continue throughout the 82-game stretch. This time, they get to face adversity early into their regular season.

As they continue to build their identity — and perhaps add some needed middle-six depth (at least temporarily) with Tyler Johnson patiently waiting to sign a short-term deal — the Bruins established a decent blueprint after persevering their way to Saturday’s win.

“It’s one game, and it’s not going to completely turn things around,” Marchand said. “But it’s a great way to realize that if we play the right way, we’re a good team. That’s a great group over there, a great offense, and it’s a great way to start building our foundation and understand the way we need to play to have success.”