BOSTON — Jim Montgomery didn’t sugarcoat it or blame the nine-game layoff. The Bruins were bad in Tuesday’s 4-1 loss to the Flames at home and he said so.
“We weren’t good enough,” Montgomery said. “I don’t think it was us looking past the opponent, I just didn’t think we were good. Our effort was poor.”
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Boston bore very little resemblance to the team that drubbed Philadelphia to close the first half.
Bruins captain Brad Marchand, who was sporting a gash on his nose and a puffy lip courtesy of two sticks to the face, was even more blunt than his coach.
“We weren’t good in any area. Their compete level was a lot higher than ours. We figured we’d be a little bit rusty. We didn’t have the effort, unfortunately,” he said. “We never got to our game. They play hard. They were getting into a lot after whistles. They were running around and we didn’t push back enough to elevate to their level.”
Montgomery was hoping the first hit Marchand took, a cross-check to the bridge of his nose that led to a Calgary major penalty and Martin Pospisil being ejected, would anger his team into action.
“It didn’t happen,” Montgomery said.
Both men didn’t expect a dud after two solid practice days.
“A little surprised. We had two really good days of practice. I don’t know what happened tonight,” Marchand said. We have to learn from it. We have a really good team coming here next game. We need to be prepared for it. We have to regroup and be better Thursday.”
Montgomery agreed.
“As a coach you always think your preparation was good but obviously it wasn’t good enough. A lot of mental mistakes and a lot of physical mistakes. It was a lack of real good preparation, individually and collectively.”
Charlie McAvoy, whose frustration bubbled over into a roughing penalty and a misconduct in the third, thought the Bruins didn’t battle enough when the game was in reach.
“First game out of break. We’ve got to be better,” he said. “They were extremely physical after the whistle tonight. I don’t think we tried to match that enough. Physical, mental, both. We weren’t good enough tonight. Practice didn’t translate. They outplayed us.”
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