First place in the Eastern Conference doesn’t guarantee you anything. The Bruins were rudely reminded of that fact last April when their record-setting regular season went up in smoke in the first round when the Florida Panthers upset them in seven games.
So the fact that the Panthers are hot and heavy behind them in the standings – going into Thursday’s games, the Panthers were just two points behind the B’s for first in the conference – shouldn’t be a reason for panic.
But if the B’s needed help focusing on their own game and process – and a couple of games last week loudly suggest that’s the case – then the tightening standings should provide at least some help.
“I don’t use it all because we are really just focused on what we do. (But) we do recognize that it’s actually a good thing that the standings are tight,” said coach Jim Montgomery. “It allows you to use it as motivation but it allows you to fight through some struggle. Battling for something is healthy. It keeps you in the right mindset down the stretch.”
The B’s had built a fairly comfortable lead over the Panthers during their strong stretch between the Christmas and All-Star breaks. But it didn’t take a big tailspin to have the Panthers close the gap with the way they’ve been playing. The B’s went 1-2-1 in the four games since the All-Star break and here’s Florida are, on their doorstep.
But Morgan Geekie is confident the team will regain its winning ways. He’s not fretting the standings
“We know what we’ve got inside this room and, at least for me personally, I try not to focus on that stuff,” said Geekie. “I know we let a few slip away coming out of the break but I don’t think people give us enough credit for how good of a team we can be, especially with the season this team had last year and the way we responded coming into the season. We’re building and we’re learning every day. It’s still fun coming to the rink every day. It’s not something we try to worry about. We’re just trying to play our own game and stay in our lane.”
Montgomery welcomes the challenge not just of other teams creeping up behind but that of working his team out of it’s dip in the road.
“We went through it in December and came out a better team. Hopefully we’re getting out of it right now,” said Montgomery, whose team was playing the fifth of a seven-game home stand on Thursday. “I really liked our team game last game. I think we really played to how I think we can have success and we all believe we can have success. And I think there’s going to be more adversity. There’s still (29) games left. We have a lot back-to-backs and three-in-fours coming up so all of that is good for preparation. Its why you go through the grind of the season. You want to be pushed, you want to be tested.”…
The rotation in the third pairing continued for Thursday’s game against the Seattle Kraken, with Kevin Shattenkirk coming out of the lineup and Parker Wotherspoon going back in.
“It’s play driven, sometimes it’s matchup. And it’s not just those two. If other players’ games dip, we have confidence in all seven defensemen to get the job done,” said Montgomery. “But we do want to keep guys in a rotation so to speak and it just feels like it’s been those two. But I’ve told those two it’s not just them. There’s going to be other guys (coming out) at some point, whether it’s injury or just play.”
Wotherspoon, a 26-year-old jourrneyman who’s paid his dues with six years played mostly with the Islanders’ AHL affiliate in Bridgeport, has impressed Montgomery both on and off the ice.
“His confidence in making plays, his confidence in being physical and deterring other people to get to our net. Those are the two main things,” said Montgomery
“He’s pretty comfortable as a person being up full-time. A lot of guys wonder (whether they’d be going back down) but he doesn’t seem to wonder. He walks around like he belongs, which is a great thing…it’s not easy being in a hotel room for a month and half. You’d like to hear ‘Go get a place’ but it’s part of the game that I don’t think a lot of people understand when you’re a guy that’s been in Providence and maybe you’ve been back and forth, how hard that is. You’re eating out a lot and it’s hard. They’re grateful that they’re up and they’re glad they’re in the hotel, but it’s not as easy as people think.”
It’s getting better for Wotherspoon. He’s found his own place and is out of the hotel. But being in and out of the lineup is something he handles with aplomb.
“I like to not change my attitude, have a good attitude every day,” said Wotherspoon. “The main thing here is I’m here to win and if I came in with a bad attitude if I got scratched, then that affects the team and it’s just not me. It’s a different situation, but it’s hard to complain in the NHL.”…
Morgan Geekie was playing his former team the Seattle Kraken, which surprisingly did not qualify him last summer, for the first time. He did not have a disparaging word.
“I was good friends with a lot of the guys over there and my wife was friends with a lot of the girls over there, too. It’s a great group of guys over there and I have nothing to have great things to say about them. It’ll be fun to go up against them,” said Geekie.
One of his close friends on the Kraken is Hingham native Matty Beniers.
“We’ve played a lot of Mario card and stuff on the plane so we bonded well. He’s a great kid and he’s going to be in this league for a long time,” said Geekie. “He’s got a great family and good head on shoulders. As long as he keeps his diet in order, I think he’ll be good.”
The diet?
“He’s still a kid. He loves his sweets,” said Geekie with a grin. “We all do but we can’t get away with anymore. He still can.”