Boston — Jim Montgomery did not mince words or assign culpability for the nine-game suspension. He remarked that the Bruins were awful in their 4-1 home loss to the Flames on Tuesday.
“We didn’t measure up,” Montgomery remarked. “I just didn’t think we were good; I don’t think it was us looking past the opponent. We didn’t put up much effort.
Compared to the club that dominated Philadelphia to end the first half, Boston was remarkably different.
Even more direct than his coach, Bruins captain Brad Marchand had a cut on his nose and a puffed lip from two sticks to his face.
We performed poorly in every aspect. They were far more competitive than we were. We anticipated being a little out of practice. Sadly, we didn’t have the effort,” he remarked. “Our game was never played. They play ferociously. Whistles got them into a lot of trouble. We didn’t retaliate sufficiently to catch up to them as they ran around.
Montgomery was hopeful that his team would react after Marchand sustained his first hit, a cross-check to the bridge of his nose, which resulted in a huge penalty for Calgary and the ejection of Martin Pospisil.
“That didn’t occur,” Montgomery declared.
After two excellent practice days, neither man anticipated a failure.
“A little taken aback. We had two excellent practice days. I have no idea what took place tonight,” Marchand remarked. We must take lessons from it. The squad that comes to play here next is pretty good. It is something we must be ready for. We need to get back together and improve by Thursday.
Montgomery concurred.
“As a coach, you always believe that your preparation was adequate, but it was clearly insufficient. Both mental and physical errors were many. It was a result of both individual and group underpreparedness.
Charlie McAvoy believed the Bruins didn’t fight hard enough when the game was close, and his annoyance spilled over into a roughing penalty and a misconduct in the third.
“First match following the break. We must improve,” he declared. “They got very violent tonight after the whistle had blown. We didn’t really try to replicate that, in my opinion. both mental and physical. Tonight, we just weren’t good enough. Practice was not transferable. They performed better than we did.
