Jim Montgomery was eager to get on a plane and get his Bruins out of the road together.
Including Patrick Brown and Ian Mitchell, who haven’t dressed yet and Danton Heinen, who is in limbo still on a PTO, the Bruins have eight new players. The Bruins left Tuesday for four games in eight days on the road together
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“To me, it’s nothing but positives. It’s early in the year. These guys have to get to know each other. They get to have dinner with each other and walk around L.A. on a day off together,” Montgomery said. “It’s more about bonding time. You learn more about yourself as a hockey player and as a team when you’re on the road in tough environments.”
Bruins captain Brad Marchand echoed his coach.
“The biggest thing is building chemistry in the group. We have a lot of new guys,” Marchand said. “When you’re able to get away and spend a lot of time together, you’re able to build those connections off the ice. Usually that translates on the ice.”
Montgomery is hoping to find some line chemistry too. While he kept the fourth line of Johnny Beecher with Milan Lucic and Jakub Lauko intact, he shook up the rest. He moved Jake DeBrusk up with Pavel Zacha and David Pastrnak. Rookie Matt Poitras is with Marchand and Morgan Geekie creating a third line with strength and power as James van Riemsdyk, Charlie Coyle and Trent Frederic are now together.
“I haven’t seen a lot of five-on-five offensive generation. Small sample size but I trust my eye behind the bench and when that’s backed up with video I want to try something else to get a spark,” he said.
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The Bruins play four games on the trip:
Thursday at San Jose at 10:30 p.m.
Saturday at Los Angeles, 10:30 p.m.
Sunday at Anaheim, 8:30 p.m.
Tuesday at Chicago, 8:30 p.m.
