Bruins finding form as playoffs near following 'wake-up call' from coach

BOSTON -- It was just 13 days ago, on March 25, that Jim Montgomery was spraying profanities and forcing sprints at practice and stating -- in no uncertain terms -- that his team was not yet ready for the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Boston Bruins were playing lackluster hockey, coming off back-to-back losses and about to set out on the road for a stretch that would test any team.

Especially one not exactly playing well.

That day, the Bruins were tied for first in the Atlantic Division with the Florida Panthers, who had a game in hand. Since then, the Bruins have gone 5-1-0, defeating the cream of the NHL (the Panthers twice, including a 3-2 overtime win Saturday at TD Garden; the Washington Capitals, the Nashville Predators, the Carolina Hurricanes) and establishing their game as, if not fully playoff-ready, then pretty darn close.

"Sometimes there's a wake-up call, sometimes you need something to kind of snap out of things," forward Charlie Coyle said. "There could be something there, it's hard to tell. Maybe if he didn't do that, are we doing the same thing right now? I don't know. 

"But I think it was certainly warranted and we needed that and I don't think we're upset that that happened. If this is the way we're playing since, that's the assist to 'Monty' doing that, I guess."

They are now first in the Atlantic, five points ahead of the Panthers and one point behind the New York Rangers for the most points in the NHL. They remain in the running for their second consecutive Presidents' Trophy, awarded to the team that finishes with the best regular-season record.

"I just think that was a wake-up call that our group needed that day," Montgomery said. "I think why we're 5-1 is because our team's growing and maturing and we have great leaders."

It does not end here. The Bruins still have a gauntlet of a schedule ahead, including a rematch with the Hurricanes at home Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; BSSO, NESN) and games against playoff hopefuls in the Pittsburgh Penguins and Capitals before the postseason officially starts.

"I think everybody's really comfortable with who we are, how we need to execute, the effort required and the physicality that's required," Montgomery said. "I think that's where our group now has confidence in how to close out games, how to take games and how to push games out of reach."

Last season, the Bruins had no need to gather points at this stage of the season, to round into form, to do anything other than tie and break records as their historic regular season wound down. It is different this season, with the Bruins needing every point for playoff positioning and, more than that, recognizing that this is the time they need to be correcting mistakes, to be figuring themselves out, to be reaching their peak.

"We're just trying to put together our best game right now going into the playoffs," defenseman Charlie McAvoy said. "I think we've played a lot of really good teams here as of late, a lot of playoff teams. For us, it's not so much about the opponent but ourselves and trying to really round into form to find our best product before we get going in a couple weeks."

There are two weeks until the playoffs begin, two weeks until the Bruins get a chance to make good on the disappointments and missed opportunities that came with their loss to the Panthers in the Eastern Conference First Round last season, two weeks until they get to build on lessons learned in the hardest of ways.

They are feeling good now. They are feeling confident now. They have days off and time to practice and a sense that they are one of the best teams in a conference and a league that does not have one dominant team in 2023-24.

"There's a certain simplicity that we have to play, but it allows us to have success," McAvoy said. "At times it might be boring, but it's winning hockey. It's getting the puck behind them, staying above them, being opportunistic. But overall, not beating ourselves. Everybody at this level knows what's right and knows what's wrong.

"There was a little bit of a moment a couple weeks ago looking at ourselves and identifying, hey, we know we're beating ourselves, we're giving up things that we shouldn't. So it really was kind of something that we had to dig deep and be like, 'We're going to play simple and we're going to play responsible.' We've done it for a couple weeks now and we've seen some good results."

They have won, against the best of the NHL. They have won, making mistakes and coming back from them, as they did Saturday in giving up the tying goal in the third period to the Panthers before coming back to win in overtime. They have found their physicality and their snarl. They have put games away in the third and gotten excellent goaltending and found their footing.

They have taken big games and they have owned them.

"We've had a lot of them lately," Coyle said. "And it makes you feel good. It gives you confidence as a group to win those ones, first off, but just to do it and play the way we want to play and know how to play. It's not always perfect -- there's things in there we can still learn from. … But for the most part, to come back when those little lapses happen and [the next shift comes and we do the right thing] … that's a sign of a good team.

"You can see we've learned that. And it's starting to all come together."