Boston Bruins coach Jim Montgomery had a night to sleep on his team’s 2-1 overtime loss to Toronto in Game 5 of their first-round Stanley Cup playoff series on Tuesday — and remained in a foul mood about it by Wednesday.
“I’m still pissed off from last night, to be honest,” Montgomery said after the Bruins’ optional practice. “I don’t understand and don’t accept our play last night. I’m going to be pissed off until the puck drops [in Game 6].”
The Bruins entered Tuesday’s game with a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series and could have eliminated the Leaf’s with a victory on home ice. Instead, Boston is headed back to Toronto for Game 6 on Thursday knowing the Leaf’s have life again.
Boston allowed Toronto defenseman Jake McCabe to open the scoring in a first period where the Bruins were outshot 11-2. Even though Trent Frederic capitalized on a fortuitous bounce to tie the score at 1-1 through 20 minutes, Boston was on its heels in Game 5 more than they had been throughout the series. Matthew Knifes’ overtime winner just 2:26 into the extra frame was a dagger Montgomery couldn’t shake.
“We wanted to review the game and where we went wrong,” said Montgomery. “We started talking about where we need to get better. Some of that’s physical. Some of it is mental. Some of it is staying in the moment. I don’t think we did a good enough job staying in the moment last night. That’s what we’re looking for [in our] next game.”
Montgomery also took heat for altering his lineup in Game 5. Rather than sticking with what previously worked, Montgomery inserted Matt Grzelcyk for Kevin Shattenkirk on the blue line — and watched Grzelcyk be victimized by John Tavares’ foot speed setting up Knifes’ winner in overtime.
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