MONTREAL – Many young hockey teams battle with consistency and go through extended periods of streaky play. That can include stretches of games where they learn painful lessons and then prolonged times when it feels like things are coming together. The Bruins have already been at both ends of that spectrum: giving up 16 goals on home ice in an embarrassing first three games of the season, then following that with a 6-0-1 stretch.
So, consistency is something Claude Julien and the Bruins coaching staff is searching for. They’ve achieved that level of consistency with their team offense and with a power play that’s leading the NHL by scoring 34 percent of the time.
But both the defense and goaltending side of things – and by extension the NHL’s worst penalty kill – still need major improvement and Julien indicated it’s something he expects will take time to truly improve.
“It’s been a combination of everything. There have been times where our goaltending has not been up to par, but there has been a lot of times when our players in front have not done the job either,” said Claude Julien. “We’ve got a lot of new bodies in our lineup this year, and we’ve had to make a lot of adjustments. It takes time to get a team to gel together, but what I like is what we’ve got a close group. We’ve got a group that’s gelled well together, and now it’s a matter of bringing that to the ice on a consistent basis.
“We’ve shown that we can play some really good games, but there have been some nights where we start off well...then we slip away from our game plan. That really hurts us a lot. This is more about the consistency that we’re looking for in our game that’s going to make us better.”
The Bruins experienced another defensive dip while allowing nine goals in back-to-back losses to Dallas and Washington earlier this week and look to this weekend’s Canadiens/Islanders double feature to turn things around.