NHL Bruins facing difficulties heading into their homestand against Kraken

NHL Bruins facing difficulties heading into their homestand against Kraken
By Field Level Media at 2:41 PM GMT+1 on February 14, 202four hours ago was the last update

February 14 – The Boston Bruins will try to get back on track when they host the Seattle Kraken on Thursday night as part of their ongoing seven-game homestand.
Boston’s record after four games is at 1-2-1, but Tuesday’s 3-2 shootout loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning was a return to the kind of play that head coach Jim Montgomery had his team playing.
The captain of the team concurs.

“That definitely resembled our team more. After his 1,000th career game, Brad Marchand remarked, “If we play like that every night, we’re going to give ourselves an opportunity to win most games.” “We’ve got to get dialed in a little bit on the power play and be a threat late in the game, but our emotion, energy, work ethic (were) there.”

While David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand each got two assists and Charlie McAvoy and James van Riemsdyk scored goals for the Bruins against Tampa Bay, their 0-for-6 performance on the power play ultimately proved to be the game’s deciding factor. There were three of them missed opportunities in the third quarter.
The Bruins have now gone three games without scoring on their power play, going 0-for-13. In the last five games, they have only managed one man-up goal.

“When you’re a confident power play, the puck is moving and you’re converging at the net,” Montgomery stated. “You need at least three guys inside the dots to be an effective power play for me and how we like to play.”
The amount of shots his club had against the Lightning, especially from point defensemen, also gave Montgomery hope. For the first time since January 20, Boston’s number of shots on goal exceeded thirty with 38.

The Bruins have defeated Seattle in three of their four previous matches, but the one setback on January 12, 2023, was the first of just four home losses in the regular season of 2022–2023.
After defeating the New York Islanders 2-1 in a shootout on Tuesday, Seattle will visit Boston on Thursday to wrap out a five-game road trip.
The Kraken had not scored more than two goals in each of their last four games, but Philipp Grubauer’s 26 saves in the second leg of a back-to-back in New York proved to be the difference.

“The entire night from the entire team (and) the mindset coming in,” Matty Beniers, a native of Massachusetts, remarked after the Tuesday game.
“I don’t believe that our level of competition and battle was present the past two nights, and that has always been our brand. Thus, that was the main focus.”
A behind-closed-doors meeting to address the team’s poor performance against the Philadelphia Flyers and New Jersey Devils was held prior to the game.

As a result, Beniers was reunited alongside Jordan Eberle and Jared McCann, among other line moves. With 21 goals so far this season, McCann leads the Kraken.
Seattle won its first game after the All-Star break because to goals from Beniers and Tomas Tatar in regular and a flawless shootout finish capped by a save from Grubauer. Its previous lowest was against Columbus on January 28.

Coach Dave Hakstol of the Krakens stated, “Our energy wasn’t based on one play or one goal throughout the entire game.” “Our game got stronger throughout the game. … We’re playing our sixth period in two nights.”And because we were the superior team, we created, played the entire game correctly, and gave it our all in the third quarter.”