BOSTON — The Bruins upcoming road trip will give the team with a lot of new faces a chance to bond.
Boston welcomed in a slew of new players in the offseason. They spent training camp and the preseason together, but the three-game road trip that spans Las Vegas, Colorado and Utah will allow the Bruins extra time to get together on the first road trip of the season.
“We’ve got a lot of new faces this year. We had a lot of change after the deadline, so to kind of get away and just have it be the guys for a little bit, it’s good,” Morgan Geekie said after Boston’s 4-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday. “I think that’s one of the best things about hockey, is just being able to spend every day with guys, especially on the road. So, go to dinner with some new guys and form some new groups. We have an awesome group of guys and it’s not cliquey at all, so you go to dinner every night with a different guy. We’re looking forward to it and we’re just going to keep using it as a steppingstone to get better.”
Casey Mittelstadt, who was acquired by the Bruins in March, is looking forward to the road trip.
“It will be fun to get on the road. Obviously, not a much better place to bond than Las Vegas,” he said. “It should be a good time, very important games at the same note. We’re looking forward to it.”
A new-look team might take extra time to build chemistry on the ice. But the Bruins have looked scrappier and stronger early on.
Haverhill native Jordan Harris is one of the newer faces and already feels the Bruins are “pretty tight-knit,” but is looking forward to getting to know his teammates a little bit better.
“I’m really looking forward to that, getting a chance to know everyone in here better,” Harris, who’s been filling in for the injured Hampus Lindholm, said. “And I think it will be good for us. We’re facing some good teams, so it will be a good test.”
The Bruins are 3-1-0 in their first four games under new coach Marco Sturm. Even in Monday’s loss, Boston was never out of it despite being down 3-0 and 4-1. The Bruins battled back, showed fight and were able to come within one. David Pastrnak made a late save in net to keep it a one-goal game and later laid a big hit on Nikita Kucherov.
“The character of this group has been on display,” Geekie said. “I think you see it up and down the lineup. Kind of what we’ve been preaching all camp and all to start the year. We’re never out of games. We’ve got the skill to stay in.”
The road trip will be an early test for the Bruins. They play the Golden Knights on Thursday before finishing the road trip with a back-to-back against the Avalanche and Mammoth on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.
“It’s going to be a big challenge, big test to see where we’re at,” coach Marco Sturm said. “And it’s going to be a lot of up and downs during the season, but we want to stay consistent. That’s going to be the biggest message for me to my guys: Be consistent.”
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