"I know they had a couple of good chances on that first power play, but I thought our forecheck was good. It really disrupted their breakouts," Bruins coach Claude Julien said during the team's optional practice on Tuesday afternoon at PPG Paints Arena.
"[Montreal] is a team that's really potent and Weber who has the great shot, I don't think we really gave him any chances last night, which was one of the game plans for our PK.
"Guys responded well and with a game like that that ended up 2-1 in overtime, you have to think that your penalty kill had a big part in that win."
The shutdown penalty killing was a continuation of Boston's season-long shorthanded success. The Bruins are ranked second in the league at 87.9%, just behind the Carolina Hurricanes, who are at 92.1%.
"It's been huge," said rookie defenseman Brandon Carlo, who played 6:43 on the kill against Montreal - second only to partner Zdeno Chara's 7:48 - and is averaging 3:11 of shorthanded time this season, also second to Chara (3:50).
"As a whole, we all take pride in it. Obviously having Tuukka [Rask] behind you and the goalies we do have helps a lot. When we do maybe make a mistake, they're right there for us to save us.
"But throughout the entire year it's been pretty impressive how we have done so far."
Perhaps the most important aspect of the penalty kill's success has been its ability to negate the Bruins' issues on the power play. Boston has struggled on the man advantage this season, ranking just 27th in the NHL at 13.8%.
"The penalty kill has kind of made up for our lack of efficiency on the power play," said Bruins forward David Backes, who averages 42 seconds of ice time on the PK and 2:50 on the power play.
"Special teams has almost been like a null category in a lot of our games. That being said, if we can get that power play running, score some goals and winning that portion of the game, that's when you really start to be able to put crooked numbers up and be able to win games by more than just a one-goal margin."
One thing Julien would like to see improve is the number of penalties the Bruins are taking. Boston has been shorthanded 99 times, the eighth-highest total in the NHL.
"You've got to be smart," Julien said when asked about the team's physical and emotional engagement against Montreal. "I like the physicality of the game. I think it has its place; it gets players into it, get the fans into it.
"At the same time, you've got to be smart about what kind of physicality you're going to have in your game because you don't want to be in the penalty box.
"Montreal has a good power play and so does Pittsburgh. Physicality is great as long as it's within the rules and hopefully we can do that."
