BOSTON – The word of the day for the Bruins on Saturday morning after an optional morning skate was “focus.”
The B’s have one won in seven tries on the TD Garden ice this season, and their game has seemed to melt away after promising first periods in a predictable pattern that ends with the Black and Gold melting down in the third period.
That speaks to a mentally fragile team and one that doesn’t respond well at home when adversity is thrown their way. That’s something Claude Julien wants to address with his group, but knows it has to come from within the dressing room as well as from the messages coming from the coaching staff.
“You have to address it. I think that’s the number one criteria right now of our issue but…I can’t be in each and every players head. It’s up to them to take the responsibility to focus for longer than what we have been focused in some of these games,” said Julien. “It’s about, you know, being prepared to put in 60 minutes of hockey. When you dissect it, you know, you’re talking about 24 minutes to even 10 minutes of hockey, so that’s not that hard to do.
“I think that’s what we have to realize here, that there’s a certain way that we play. When we play that way we’re successful, when we don’t we’re not. So they just have to, I guess, embrace the idea of that and do it properly for the amount of time that they play. If we do that we’re going to improve as a team.”
Zdeno Chara recognizes the need for his group to be mentally tougher collectively and respond with more poise at home when they’re inevitably pushed by opponents who aren’t intimidated by the Bruins at the Garden anymore. It comes down to avoiding simple coverage mistakes and staying away from some of the bad decisions with the puck that have quickly turned into goals against Boston this season.
“It really comes to down to being accountable, and every individual needs to be focused on the task before [the game], during and then all the way to the end,” said Chara. “We can all hit, we can skate and we can score. We just need to be paying attention to the details.
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“We need to make sure we maintain the pace we start the games with, and that we don’t crack. We need to make sure we stay patient and focused on every little detail, and make sure the other team cracks before we do.”
That’s been easier said than done for the Bruins, who have coughed up 29 goals in seven games at TD Garden. Now, the B’s have four straight home dates – starting with tonight against the Red Wings – to get their minds right and start getting a few opponents rattled on home ice rather than the other way around.