The Boston Bruins are just two games into the season, but head coach Jim Montgomery is already mixing and matching the forward lines as they get set to kick off a four-game roadie against the Sharks in San Jose on Thursday night.
“It’s a small sample size, two games,” Jim Montgomery told reporters on Monday after he flip-flopped centers Matthew Poitras and Charlie Coyle on the forward lines.
“We’re going on the road. That factors into it a little bit on why. But I haven’t seen a lot of offensive 5-on-5 generation. Again, small sample size. I just think — I trust my eye behind the bench, and then follow it up, and I see it on video, I just want to try something else to get a spark.”
After a travel day for the Boston Bruins on Tuesday, that spark wasn’t there on Wednesday to begin practice at Sharks Ice, the practice facility for the San Jose Sharks.
“I didn’t like [the intensity] in the beginning,” Jim Montgomery told the media after. “You kind of expected a long day yesterday, change in the time, all that factors into it. I thought after the first seven minutes, the pace picked up, and we started to have the intensity that we’re going to require to have any kind of success [Thursday].”
That intensity was especially evident in the new second line of Brad Marchand-Poitras-Morgan Geekie.
“The speed and creativity have been evident, and they’re going hard to the net, which I don’t care what the makeup is of your line,” the Bruins bench boss said. “I don’t care if you’re a possession line or you’re a rush line. You’ve got to get to the hard areas, and you’ve got to stop there, and I see them doing that.”
Montgomery hasn’t been shy to switch Geekie, a natural center, to the wing and back throughout the preseason and two games into this 2023-24 regular season. So far, the new Bruin has impressed the second-year coach.
“I just like the way he builds a team game,” the Bruins bench boss. “I especially like how he wins races to the net front and stays there takes a lot of punishment. I think he’s someone that’s going to really help us with our net-front battle and our net-front presence, five on five and on the power play.”
Here’s what the lineup looked like at practice in San Jose on Wednesday:
Forwards
Jake DeBrusk-Pavel Zacha-David Pastrnak
Brad Marchand-Matt Poitras-Morgan Geekie
James van Riemsdyk-Charlie Coyle-Trent Frederic
Milan Lucic-John Beecher-Jakub Lauko
Extra: Patrick Brown, Danton Heinen
Defensemen
Matt Grzelcyk-Charlie McAvoy
Hampus Lindholm-Brandon Carlo
Derek Forbort-Kevin Shattenkirk
Extra: Ian Mitchell
Goalies
Linus Ullmark
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