BOSTON — During the last week’s of the regular season, one of Bruins coach Jim Montgomery’s frequent concerns about his team was it’s inability to match its opponent’s urgency.
At that point, the Bruins were assured of a playoff spot and were playing teams battling to earn one. Those teams had innate reasons for superior motivation.
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But now after his team fell 3-2 to the Maple Leafs in Game 2 of the playoffs, he saw the concern pop up again.
“I didn’t think urgency was where it needed to be to prevail tonight,” he said. “I just didn’t think we won enough wall battles to be able to get on our end successfully. …I just don’t think our players were in sync and what they were trying to do so that’s why it looks a little discombobulated.”
The Bruins’ led 1-0 and 2-1 and both times gave up leads. They were outshot 33-29 in the game.
“I think it’s a function of their defending well. It’s also a function of we’re not playing fast enough,” Montgomery said. “We’re slow in transition, which is not allowing us to possess parks and it’s not allowing us to get in on the forecheck.”
As the best-of-seven series moves to Toronto tied 1-1, Montgomery challenged his team to take another step.
“It’s a series. They’re a good hockey team. We’re a good hockey team. It’s the playoffs,” he said. “They improved from Game 1 to Game 2. We didn’t improve enough. We need to get better for Game 3.”
David Pastrnak, who had his first goal of the series, said there’s a lot of room to do that.
“I don’t think we played nowhere near as good as we can,” he said. “We have some work to do. We’ll get some sleep tonight and go back to work tomorrow.”
