Bruins Notebook: 'Pissed Off' Montgomery raring for Game 6

BRIGHTON – Jim Montgomery didn’t avoid the tough questions or duck the hard feelings after a night to sleep on a very disappointing Game 5 loss to the Maple Leafs at TD Garden on Tuesday night.

The B’s bench boss is “pissed off” about the poor performance of his team in a chance to close out a weakened Leafs team that was reeling after a pair of home losses to Boston in the middle of the series. Instead, the Bruins came out looking tight and nervous while being outshot by a 12-2 margin in the first period and eventually lost in overtime while getting outworked and outhustled by a desperate Leafs group playing for their postseason lives.

“I’m still pissed off from last night, to be honest,” said Montgomery, after the Bruins took the ice for a brief optional skate on Wednesday morning that was followed by a video session. “I don’t understand, and I don’t accept our play (in Game 5). So I’m going to be pissed off until the puck drops tomorrow night.”

Inside the Bruins dressing room, the mood was trending toward positive after a video session that sounded like it was an honest assessment of what wasn’t good enough against the Leafs in an underwhelming Game 5. 

"We met this morning to sort of go over it. I think that was really productive and we're looking forward to getting out of here today and getting to Toronto,” said Charlie McAvoy. “There were a lot of things we needed to hear, needed to see. We'll be better for it.

“We did what we had to do this morning and we’re completely shifting our focus to tomorrow [and Game 6] and take advantage of that opportunity. You get these opportunities in series, and you have to make the most of them. The fourth one is the hardest one to get, but we have some experience in it. But for us it’s really about playing our best game and seeing where the chips fall.”

That’s something that didn’t happen in Game 5 with a great chance to close out the Maple Leafs but needs to happen for Boston with a third straight win in Toronto in this series as they look to avoid letting things get to a Game 7 scenario where anything can happen. 

GETTING SECOND-GUESSED

There were plenty of media folks around the Bruins that were highly critical of the lineup changes made for Game 5 as Montgomery scratched Kevin Shattenkirk in favor of Matt Grzelcyk and removed their most effective faceoff guy in Johnny Beecher in favor of Justin Brazeau. 

It was eyebrow-raising to make any changes to a Boston lineup that played some of its best hockey in Game 3 and Game 4 in Toronto, and even more so with a defensive liability in Grzelcyk and a player in Brazeau who hadn’t played any hockey in a month after getting injured in a regular season game against Nashville. And it came back to bite them as Grzelcyk struggled in a pairing with Parker Wotherspoon before John Tavares victimized him on the OT game-winner, and the Bruins got destroyed on faceoffs while losing 16-of-20 to the Maple Leafs in the first period. 

It wasn’t the reason they lost Game 5, as many of their best players simply weren’t good enough, but the changes also undoubtedly played into the very disjointed start by Boston in the loss. Montgomery took accountability for the blame after the moves didn’t work and said he welcomed the criticism and second-guessing that came along with a couple of moves that backfired on the B’s. 

"There are a lot of discussions that go on, but in the end [of the day] I end up making decisions that I was really confident were best for the Boston Bruins,” said Montgomery. “And when it doesn't work out, I understand it'll be second guessed, and third and fourth guessed. I understand that it comes with the territory.

“Just like when you make changes, and it works out [you get the credit]...it's the same thing. But I'm comfortable with the decisions I made and why I made them, and the criticism that comes with it.”

It will be interesting to see what the Bruins opt to do in Game 6, but the bet here is that they learned their lesson and will go back to Shattenkirk and Beecher to try and recreate what they did so effectively in Toronto earlier in the series.

ONE-TIMERS

*Brandon Carlo was shaken up in the third period and didn’t play in the overtime session of Game 5 for the Boston Bruins, but Montgomery indicated that the shutdown defenseman was fine to play in Game 6 on Thursday night.

*The Bruins coach pinpointed that perhaps the Bruins didn’t stay in the moment ahead of Game 5, and maybe were already making theoretical plans for advancing to the next round. Certainly, it feels like even the organization may have been a bit guilty of that in playing somebody like Brazeau, who hadn’t played an NHL game in a month and was certainly going to be rustier and less effective than the other bottom-6 forward options like keeping Beecher in or inserting Jakub Lauko back into the lineup.

“Like we always do, we reviewed the game from last night and where we went wrong,” said Montgomery. “We start talking about how we need to get better and some of it is physical, and some of it is mental, right? Some of it is staying in the moment like we talk about, and I don’t think we did a good enough job of staying in the moment last night. That’s what we’re looking for to get better for the next game.”