Bruins Drop Exhibition Contest to Devils in Newark

NEWARK - The Bruins dropped their fourth of six preseason games on Monday night, falling to the New Jersey Devils, 1-0, at Prudential Center. Coach Jim Montgomery called the shutout setback "a little bit of a flat game for us" as the Black & Gold struggled to generate much offensively.
"We just gave up too many high-quality chances," said Montgomery. "We were just slow to pressure pucks and we were slow to transition to offense. Overall, I don't think there's much to take away that would be really positive for this game."

When asked why his club might have put forth that type of performance, Montgomery was not interested in doling out excuses.
"Anything I could put it off to would just be an excuse, right?" he said. "Whether you want to say it was our first time we go four hard days in a row and that adds a little bit of fatigue to the legs, [it's]excuses, right?
"Everybody's going through training camp right now and it's about how you can dig in. We wanted to see who would dig in in this game, a little bit of adversity."
Charlie Coyle admitted that for some of the more veteran players in camp, there might be some level of looking ahead at this stage of training camp as Opening Night inches closer. But, he added, with more than a week still to go before the opener in Washington, there remains work to be done.
"Every opportunity you get to play, you want to play and create good habits and all that good stuff," said Coyle. "Everyone's trying to make a good impression, make the team, and that's part of it. You've got to go through it and make the most of it and use it in a positive way.
"But of course we want to get going right now, we're champing at the bit to play and we're excited for this year. But we've got to do it step by step. There's a lot that we can accomplish right now in these games, and we've got to make sure we do that."

Kinkaid Leaves Early

Starting goaltender Keith Kinkaid, who made 19 saves on 20 shots, left in the third period with an apparent injury and did not return. After the game, however, Montgomery said the 33-year-old was suffering from cramping and did not believe it was anything serious.
"I thought our goalies were our two best players," said Montgomery. "Unfortunately, [Kinkaid] cramped up there but he was having a really good hockey game. Gave us an opportunity to maybe steal one in the third period…he's fine, just cramps."
Kyle Keyser took over in relief and stopped all four shots he faced.
"Kinkaid played great in net," said Coyle. "Keyser came in, too - that's a tough one - and made some saves as well. It was there for us. They gave us a great chance to put a few in but we didn't."

Wait, There's More

• On when the Bruins might make their next round of cuts, Montgomery said, "I can't answer the cutdown when it's gonna happen, but we only have two [preseason] games left. It's important that we get a lot of vets into the lineup right now and we start looking like the team that's gonna play come October 12."
• On the performance of Jack Ahcan, who played a team-high 22:19, Montgomery said, "I've always liked Jack Ahcan from his college days. He's someone that competes hard, he has really good hockey sense. So, when you have those two elements to your game and those are your biggest strengths, you can do a lot of good things on the ice despite his stature as a defenseman…he's a real good player for us that we know as he develops and continues to develop might be a full-time Bruin for us one day."
• On a quieter performance than his first two preseason appearances, A.J. Greer (two SOG, one hit in 17:09) said, "Today wasn't my best performance, but at the end of the day, I come up with the same mentality every single day, and that's giving everything that I have and emptying the tank. Just for me, keep doing those little things that I do best and hope that it's enough. But I can't really do much more than that."