BOSTON — For most of this season, Brad Marchand has worked the right-side half-boards on the No. 1 power-play unit. It has not produced results. The Boston Bruins entered Joe Sacco’s first game as interim head coach with the worst power play in the league at 11.7 percent.
Something had to change.
So for his first game at the wheel, Sacco shifted Marchand to net-front and goal-line responsibility. Marchand has played there before. Few players are more tenacious on loose pucks than the Bruins captain.
“He’s always been a guy who can take it to the net pretty well,” Sacco said before Thursday’s game. “I know he’s a smaller guy as far as being in front of the goalie. But from the goal line, getting it to the net, he’s quick off the goal line and he’s able to strike right away to the net, attacking. We’re hoping that when he does that, it will create some two-for-one rebounds, opportunities.”
In Thursday’s second period against the Utah Hockey Club, the exact scenario Sacco envisioned came to life.
With Logan Cooley off for holding, David Pastrnak faked a one-timer from the left elbow. At the same time, Marchand gained net-front position. He got a piece of Pastrnak’s fake shot. Elias Lindholm did the rest, tucking in the rebound for the game’s only goal in the Bruins’ 1-0 win.
Lindy breaks the ice 👌 pic.twitter.com/augT90ULT5
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) November 22, 2024
Coaching matters.
“Pretty good,” said Sacco, who was given the game puck by the players, when asked how he felt to get the win in his debut. “I’m not going to lie to you. To get our guys a win, too, is even more important to feel better about themselves. I think how we went about the game tonight was a businesslike approach.”
You could argue the power play cost Jim Montgomery his job. It wasn’t just that it failed to produce. It was also that the team’s most dynamic offensive players, including Marchand, Pastrnak and Lindholm, struggled so much in man-up situations that it bled into their five-on-five play.
Lindholm, in particular, was a ghost for the Bruins’ 8-9-3 stretch that produced Montgomery’s dismissal. He had just one five-on-five goal. He was doing nothing on the power play in the bumper.
Against Utah, Lindholm was far more active and assertive in the bumper. As soon as he received the puck, he moved it to open teammates. Lindholm looked more like the No. 1 center and power-play initiator the Bruins believed they had signed.
“I’m hard on myself,” Lindholm said. “I’m probably the hardest one out there on myself. I know when I play bad. I know when I play good. Obviously, been too many bad games for me this year. It’s obviously time for a reset. Hopefully, I can build some confidence and help the team more.”
The Bruins were not perfect. They were 1-for-7 on the power play. They should have pushed more pucks through Karel Vejmelka. They had to lean hard on Joonas Korpisalo (21 saves), especially late after Utah pulled Vejmelka even with Kevin Stenlund off for slashing.
But they outshot Utah 31-21. They were more physical. They completed passes. They played north. The shock of Montgomery’s sacking was in their heads.
“Mindsets, I think, were the biggest thing,” Marchand said. “Your mind is such a powerful thing. Your thought process going into a game, each shift, how you reset after each shift is so powerful in carrying you through a game. I liked where we were at tonight. We did a good job staying even-keeled all the way through the game.”
Marchand and his teammates, however, could not help but feel the surge when Mark Kastelic flexed his muscles in two fights with Robert Bortuzzo. Kastelic had missed the last game because of a lower-body injury. The No. 4 center returned with thunder. In the second fight, Kastelic landed several right crosses before he and Bortuzzo thudded to the ice.
“The first one just happened,” Kastelic said. “Then the second one was just being passionate about the game and not trying to let anybody push me around.”
The Bruins are realistic. It was one win. Their opponent does not qualify as a league heavyweight. The Bruins have dipped after previous wins.
But the energy they felt was real. This time, they might have a foothold.
“The locker room had a good vibe,” Sacco said. “It was alive. It was alive.”
(Photo: Winslow Townson / Getty Images)
