Bruins Quickly Shifting Focus to Saturday Showdown Against Leafs

BOSTON - The Bruins have made it one of their missions this season to avoid consecutive losses. So far, so good as Boston has rebounded following each of their eight defeats through 41 games.
But on Saturday night, the Black & Gold - who suffered their first home regulation loss of the season on Thursday vs. Seattle - will have, perhaps, their toughest test yet in that regard as the division rival Toronto Maple Leafs visit TD Garden for the first time this season.

"I think we were all disappointed with [Thursday] night, but at the same time you realize that losses happen, and we don't want to be a team that loses two in a row," said Taylor Hall. "We also know who's coming in [Saturday] night and down the road what the meaning of a game might be. It's always exciting to play Toronto and it's different when it's on a Saturday night. We're excited for that."
Coach Jim Montgomery acknowledged that with the top two teams in the Eastern Conference squaring off - Boston leads the East with 68 points, while Toronto is tied with Carolina for second with 59 - it will be "a bigger game than the average regular-season game," especially with both clubs aiming to get back on track.
"I don't know if it's at the point where…how much does this dictate anything," Montgomery mused. "I don't think it's that because were not even at All-Star break, but it's an important game for both teams. They've lost two out of three and we've lost one and at home [outside of the Winter Classic] we've gone to overtime the other two prior games before we won.
"We need to get our game in order and [Saturday] is a good opportunity against one of the teams that…Toronto and Carolina and ourselves have probably been the three teams that have been consistently the best so far this year, so it's a good test for us."

The Bruins will also be in search of a bit of revenge with the Maple Leafs being one of five teams to hand them a regulation loss this season. Way back on Nov. 5, Auston Matthews - who could return to the lineup for Toronto on Saturday after missing the last two games - scored both goals in a 2-1 victory for the Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena.
"Very similar to what Seattle did," Montgomery said when asked what Toronto did in that game to give the Bruins trouble. "They were five [skaters] together, they were over top of us, and they protected the middle of the ice really well in their own end.
"That game, coupled with the game [Thursday] night, are learning opportunities for how to create more offense when we're playing teams that play tight checking. I think what Seattle did to us [Thursday] was a lot of what we've done throughout the year to opponents."

Koppanen Assigned

After making his NHL debut against Seattle, center Joona Koppanen was assigned to Providence on Friday afternoon. The 24-year-old won 71 percent of his faceoffs and landed a shot on goal in 8:50 of ice time - 1:14 of which came shorthanded.
"I liked him," said Montgomery. "I thought he was good on the penalty kill, thought he was a good support player. As far as what we were talking about with [Tomas] Nosek, I thought that he has a lot of those similar traits, so I thought that for his first game in the NHL where we weren't on top of our game, I thought he was noticeable as far as pushing the needle forward for us."
When Montgomery spoke following Friday's practice at Warrior Ice Arena, the transaction had not yet been announced, though Boston's bench boss sounded as if he might return A.J. Greer - who missed the last three games due to illness - to the lineup on Saturday night.
"We haven't made that decision yet, just because it's Toronto and not because he doesn't deserve it, but sometimes in the back of my head it's like the guys that have gotten you here should get rewarded by playing Toronto, so that's what's in my head right now," said Montgomery.

An Empty Feeling

Montgomery said that when the Bruins arrived at Warrior Ice Arena on Friday morning, there was a noticeable sense of disappointment following the loss to Seattle, a feeling that has not been easy to find around the rink this season.
"We're not used to coming in here and we lost at home, said Montgomery. "I was talking with Brad Marchand about it, we were having breakfast together, and we were just talking about how there is an empty feeling in your stomach today and we haven't had that.
"It kind of pisses you off - pardon my language but I didn't have a better word for it - for what we've been used to and it stings a little and you want to get that feeling back of not only internally, but you could tell the whole city was rallying behind what we were doing…we want to get it back."

Friday's Practice Lineup

FORWARDS
Brad Marchand - Patrice Bergeron - David Pastrnak
Taylor Hall - David Krejci - Craig Smith
Pavel Zacha - Charlie Coyle - Trent Frederic
Nick Foligno - Tomas Nosek/Joona Koppanen - A.J. Greer
DEFENSEMEN
Matt Grzelcyk - Charlie McAvoy
Hampus Lindholm - Brandon Carlo
Derek Forbort - Connor Clifton
Jakub Zboril
GOALIES
Linus Ullmark
Jeremy Swayman