Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery was patient with his time following an ugly-looking 5-1 loss to the Blues at TD Garden on Monday.

And while Montomgery was willing and more than engaging with every answer, it was clear that the second-year B’s coach didn’t want to spend too, too much time dissecting what was obviously an off night for his club.

“You have nights like this where the puck doesn’t go your way and you don’t have puck luck,” Montgomery said. “Just… it happens. I think on most nights we have done a lot about it. We have 91 points. We have a good hockey team.

“We weren’t good tonight.”



And this one slipped out of Boston’s grasp pretty early.

After the Bruins fumbled a power-play opportunity earned in the first minute of the game, the Blues struck first with an odd bounce that bounced right to the slot and for Kasperi Kapanen to rip one through Jeremy Swayman. Then Robert Thomas capitalized on a 5-on-3 advantage for the club, while a second-period breakdown where Mason Lohrei got caught in no man’s land allowed the Blues to storm towards Boston’s end with numbers and a 3-on-2 look finished by Kevin Hayes.

Even when the Bruins thought they got on the board with a Justin Brazeau tally midway through the second frame, a successful coach’s challenge from the Blues nullified the goal after it was deemed that the B’s were offside on the entry.

That kind of night, really.

The only good news for the Bruins came in the third period when David Pastrnak blasted home his 41st goal of the season and gave the B’s some life. And while the Bruins pushed and pushed and pushed, they were unable to find a second goal on the Blues’ Joel Hofer, who made some big-time saves and finished with 36 saves.

In the Boston net, the 25-year-old Swayman took the loss behind a 17-of-21 outing, which put an end to Swayman’s three-game win streak and gave him his first regulation loss since Feb. 15 against the Kraken.

Fourth line continues to show some jump

On a night where just about everybody on the Bruins lacked spirit, Boston’s fourth line with Jesper Boqvist between Jakub Lauko and Justin Brazeau continued what’s been a strong push of late, with some excellent shifts.
And you know what? GOOD.

There’s been a lot of talk about this fourth line and its identity. A few weeks back, Montgomery told me he wanted a fourth line that creates “anxiety.” Lauko and Boqvist do it with their speed, and Brazeau does it with his size and ability to get to the high-danger areas of the offensive zone. The line created plenty of anxiety in this one, too. They had one sequence there where Lauko came in with speed and tagged a defenseman, forced a turnover, and Boqvist jumped on it.

But here’s why you love to see it: The Bruins recalled Johnny Beecher before this game. They went out and added Pat Maroon at the trade deadline. They also have countless players in Providence pining for a look on the NHL roster. The competition can’t and will not stop for these guys. Every night feels like a tryout.

And having a response like that? That tells you they know it.

Everything else

- The Bruins stuck with the same defense from last Saturday’s win over the Penguins, meaning that deadline addition Andrew Peeke was a scratch for Boston. The Bruins want to get Peeke into a real practice before throwing him into action. They weren’t able to do that on Saturday (a 3 p.m. puck drop), they were off on Sunday, and Monday came with a morning skate (not a true practice).

But after Kevin Shattenkirk struggled in this game, and with a true practice day set for Wednesday, you can almost expect Peeke to make his B’s debut on Thursday.

- B’s center Charlie Coyle played this game under the weather. Coyle takes a ton of pride in being the iron man for this club, but it was clear that he was sick tonight. In addition to a minus-1 rating, Coyle lost nine of his 14 faceoffs. It was his seventh-worst faceoff performance of the 2023-24 season.

- Former Bruins defenseman Torey Krug knew exactly what he was doing when he banked that puck off the corner boards and out to the slot en route to the first St. Louis goal of the evening. Krug, who spent almost a decade with the Bruins, knows TD Garden all too well. He even had some set plays knowing those bounces. That play felt like one of those, to be honest. No other reason to even shoot it there.

Up next: The Bruins will return to game action Thursday night when they go head-to-head with the Canadiens up in Montreal.

Ty Anderson is a writer and columnist for 985TheSportsHub.com. He has been covering the Bruins since 2010, and has been a member of the Boston chapter of the PHWA since 2013. Any opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of 98.5 The Sports Hub, Beasley Media Group, HockeyBuzz.com or any subsidiaries. Yell at him on Twitter/X: @_TyAnderson.

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