Bruins are starting to show some life again after coaching change

Whether it be the “dead-cat bounce” or an actual turnaround, early returns show the Boston Bruins are playing well with a new man behind the bench.

The Bruins made headlines last week when they removed Jim Montgomery from his duties as head coach, promoting Joe Sacco as the team’s interim bench boss. While the team has only played three games since then, Boston is looking like a more stable team than it was before the coaching change.

The B’s picked up hard-fought wins over the Utah Hockey Club and Detroit Red Wings before falling to the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday night, though Boston heavily outplayed the Canucks in the losing effort. While the offense is still struggling, the Bruins are showing a greater emphasis on defense, which is going to be important if the team wants to climb back into a playoff spot.

On Wednesday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk discuss how the Bruins have looked under Sacco.

Tyler Yaremchuk: This Bruins team is playing some different hockey under Joe Sacco.

Frank Seravalli: They really are…Look at the three games under Joe Sacco, 2-1. There’s been a total of six goals scored among all the teams in the three games that they’ve played. That’s incredible…It certainly looks and feels like a completely different Bruins team. I think my question is: Is this how the Bruins have to play in order to be successful, given how slow and sluggish their offense has been so far this year? Is that crazy talk? Or is that how the Bruins are looking at it?

Tyler: They’re preventing at an unreal clip, but they’re also generating a lot. If they didn’t run into a couple of red-hot goalies over these last few games, I think we’re talking about a team that has 8-9 goals over this stretch.

Frank: This was a team that gave up a lot [of offense]…That was one thing I kept saying about this Bruins team, too–Jeremy Swayman, I don’t think, was going to continue to play as poorly as he was prior to the coaching change. This defense is too good…I do think this team will improve.

You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…