Boston vs Montreal : Bruins will be better in Game 4, Julien says

Source : faceoff.com

The Boston Bruins have only played with the lead in one game so far in their playoff series against the Canadiens — and even that was a short-lived experience last Saturday, despite the 5-3 score in their favour.

“It’s something that we haven’t been able to do for very long. It’s certainly one of the things we have to rectify,” Bruins coach Claude Julien said Wednesday at the Bell Sports Complex in Brossard, where the team held an optional practice.

Getting shots through is another.

The Canadiens blocked more shots (29) on Tuesday in their 4-2 win than the Bruins got through (28), Julien said.

“We talked about trying to play with the lead, we talk about getting shots through and those are all adjustments that you have to make here as you move forward,” Julien said.

He also predicted his team would be better in Game 4 on Thursday (7:30 p.m., CBC, RDS, TSN Radio 690) at the Bell Centre.

“We’re a group that’s confident,” Julien said. “But we also have guys right now that are a little frustrated with themselves.

“They know they have to be better. They’re going to be better (Thursday) and that’s the confidence we have in our group. And that’s the way we’ve been in the past. And you’ve got to rely on those
guys to come up tomorrow and play the kind of game that they can.

“It’s a 2-1 series. It’s not the end of the world here. We’ve just got to battle back,” he added.

“There’s no reason to panic. We haven’t in the past and we’re not about to panic now.”
Near the end of the game with the Bruins pressing in the Canadiens’ zone, the net came off its moorings when defenceman P.K. Subban skated by, bumping into it. There was no penalty called on the play. When asked whether he thought it was done intentionally, Julien said: “This is all stuff that we can’t control.

“Referees make those calls and you move forward. ... If we rely on referees to give us the breaks than we certainly don’t have our focus in the right place,” the Bruins coach added.

“We need to make our own breaks. We have to look at ourselves and say listen did we play well enough (Tuesday) to win that game and we didn’t. So we can look at all this little stuff on the side that is something that we don’t control and complain about it. That’s not what we do. We have to be honest here and tell ourselves that we need to be better.”

Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli viewed Boston’s last game as “a game of frustration.”
“It’s a game of inches and consequently a game of details. So we have to be better at it,” Chiarelli said,.

“And we’re good at that. I think we’re a good team. We break out well. I think our neutral zone is good. I think our forecheck is good — it wasn’t as good as it should be, but that happens. So it’s a long series and we’ll see where it goes.”

Chiarelli declined to comment on Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask’s game. He called Rask, who is a finalist for the Vézina Trophy this season, perhaps one of the top two goaltenders in the world.

“I would expect him to play well and he’s one of many that have to play better,” the GM said.
Chiarelli said he believed the Bruins have to keep more focus on the details.

“I was asked about finding (shooting) lanes — to me, that’s detail you’ve got to be able to see the lane and to move to where the lane is,” he said. “The sustaining forecheck. It’s really meat and potatoes for us. It’s like sustaining a forecheck, wearing teams down.

“When we’re at the top of our game, that’s what we do. We haven’t done it yet.”