Boston Bruins Head Coach Jim Montgomery stated in a pre-game interview that he was not expecting a «Rembrandt» performance Wednesday night by his team coming off the Holiday Break. Considering how the team was playing before the break, the rust that can come along with being away from the team/ice for three days and the craziness of the holidays, this was not an unreasonable statement.
What happened next was his team going out and putting in one of the most complete performances of the season in a 4-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres. All the things that were going wrong before the break were corrected. It seemed that not matter who the Bruins played leading up to the Holiday break, they were outmatched. Wednesday night they made the statement. Special Teams were a huge factor. The Penalty Kill was a perfect 6 for 6 in killing penalties. The Power play was nearly unstoppable, going 3 for 5. The Secondary scoring picked up again with Charlie Coyle picking up a pair of goals and Mason Lohrei picking up a goal. Jake Debrusk who has been a ghost of his former self, picked up two assists and was the second star of the game.
The goaltending by Jeremy Swayman was fantastic (assisted a little by Charlie McAvoy's ridiculous save) stopping 25 of 26 shots. The goalie swapping seems like it's going to continue as both Swayman and Ullmark have showed no signs of slowing down. The competition gets stiffer with the Devils coming to town as the Bruins come home, but this was definitely a step in the right direction and the Bruins gave Montgomery the «Rembrandt» he wasn't expecting.
