Takeaways: Bruins play with pace and emotion in needed bounce-back win

For one of the rare times during this early portion of the regular season, the Boston Bruins looked like a cohesive hockey club for 60 minutes.

From the opening puck drop up until the final horn, Jim Montgomery’s club sustained a healthy 200-foot effort.

While they encountered a couple of long defensive zone shifts during the middle frame, the Bruins limited their mishaps throughout Saturday’s tilt against the Philadelphia Flyers. More importantly, they established healthier habits in their attacking end, resulting in crisper passing, increased high-danger scoring chances and an opportunistic counterattack.

With another productive outing from Joonas Korpisalo and timely scoring from their middle-six, the Bruins earned a needed 3-0 victory.

Bruins play with pace and emotion.

Of all the troubling trends from Boston’s October swoon, the slow skating, static power play and the sluggish pursuit stood out within each contest.

Those worrying developments, along with the ill-timed penalties, popped up throughout Thursday’s lopsided 8-2 loss in Carolina. Upon arriving in Philly in the wee Friday morning hours, the Bruins opted to ditch their scheduled practice for a mental reset.

When they arrived at Wells Fargo Center on Saturday, the Bruins looked refreshed and focused. That translated into their on-ice performance.

From the get-go, the Bruins engaged in physical puck play, got pucks deep in the attacking end and mostly kept Korpisalo’s crease clean. With pace and emotion, they earned each of their three tallies, beginning with Matthew Poitras finishing off a greasy sequence for his first goal of the season at 13:28 of the opening frame.

Whether through Brad Marchand shielding a puck from Rasmus Ristolainen to set up Justin Brazeau’s second-period tally or a late-game scrum spearheaded by Trent Frederic and Travis Konecny’s scrap, the Bruins had each other’s back.

“I loved our effort. I felt our second and third effort was really good,” Montgomery said during his postgame interview with NESN’s Andy Brickley. “By no means was our mental play perfect, but that effort overcame some the lapses that we had, and I think now players will be a little looser.”

Indeed, Montgomery and the Bruins can breathe a little easier following Marchand’s empty netter. But they needed their goalie to do some cleanup duty en route to their fifth win of the season.

Korpisalo stood tall during Boston’s second-period lull.

Unlike Saturday’s meeting, the Bruins hardly looked like a well-rounded squad in Tuesday’s tilt against these same Flyers. During that 2-0 setback, the Bruins succumbed to Philly’s heavy shot-blocking presence and left Korpsialo out to dry in his first start in nearly two weeks.

Korpisalo encountered a similar fate in spot duty for Jeremy Swayman during Thursday’s blowout in Raleigh. The Bruins knew they’d turn to him for one of their two tilts this weekend.

Given that Korpisalo held his own Tuesday, Montgomery and goalie coach Bob Essensa gave the Swede another chance against the Flyers. While he didn’t face as much traffic in his last two starts, Korpisalo remained steady whenever the Bruins encountered breakdowns.

Indeed, Montgomery’s squad limited the turnovers and penalty trouble compared to Saturday. But they encountered some turmoil in the second as the top pair of Nikita Zadorov and Charlie McAvoy logged over two minutes of time on ice during consecutive shifts, spending most of that time in the defending end trying to regain puck possession and clear the zone amid Philly’s pushback.

The Flyers generated their best looks during those stages of events in the middle frame. Korpisalo remained calm and steady, making his best saves of the afternoon midway through the middle frame, including a sprawling stop on Morgan Frost after a friendly fire moment involving Hampus Lindholm and Brandon Carlo.

Korpisalo made seven of his 20 stops during the second stanza. His timely saves allowed the Bruins to add a needed insurance tally on Brazeau’s third of the season.

“He was wonderful,” Montgomery told Brickley of Korpisalo, “especially in the second period when we had some lulls, and he made two unbelievable saves.”

The Bruins will likely tab Swayman for Sunday’s start against Seattle to cap off their first back-to-back of the 2024-25 season. But among one of the few positives of Boston’s early-season troubles, Korpisalo’s performance in a backup role through his first five games provides a welcoming development.

Bruins look to quickly build on Saturday’s effort.

At times, losing the first half of a back-to-back can create more urgency for any NHL team. With very little time to dwell on a loss, a game the next night presents an opportunity to learn from a setback from the night before and establish a quick tempo early before heavier legs settle in.

In this instance, the short turnaround provides the Bruins a chance to build off Saturday’s win in Philly. They’ll also have fresher legs with the Kraken landing in Boston early Sunday morning following their 7 p.m. faceoff in Ottawa.

More importantly, the Bruins will bring a little more confidence into Sunday’s late-afternoon contest on Causeway Street. And they hope the attention to detail they showed against the Flyers translates into their second set of back-to-back wins this season.

“It’s hard to come to the rink every day and be really good,” Marchand told NESN’s Andrew Raycroft. “But that’s what makes coming to the rink so special. I think we need to be grateful to come into the rink every day. That’s why it feels so good to win is because it’s so hard and you have to earn it every single night — and not even just during the games. It’s during practices, during the meetings…it’s in the way you prepare on and off the ice. It’s about constantly being a good pro and sticking with it.”