Zolak and Bertrand: Is Jim Montgomery Detached From Reality?
On Friday’s edition of Zolak & Bertrand, the guys reacted to the Bruins 8-2 defeat at the hands of the Carolina Hurricanes. While discussing the performance, and Jim Montgomery’s comments after the game, where he stated how the slow start from the team will make them better come playoff time, Zo and Beetle questioned whether or not the coach firmly understands that the Bruins are currently last place in the conference.
“It’s A Real Silly Comment...”
Bertrand: I thought after the game last night that he had a comment that sounds, detached from reality. They’re in last place. Does he realize they’re in last place? He’s talking. Basically, to sum that up it’s, “Hey, we got off to good starts and we were at the top of the standings at Thanksgiving the last two years and it meant nothing. So this also means nothing.” That is not how that works.
Zolak: Not in that business.
Bertrand: You don’t just go from being in last place at Thanksgiving, to being a team that has success in the playoffs. If you think this is somehow going to serve your team well in the long run, and in the playoffs, I would say in response to that, you’re not making the playoffs. What are you talking about? You want to use your collapse two years ago as part of the rationale as to why this team would be good in the long run. It’s just delusional. That was a delusional comment. You’re in last place. You’re about to lose your job. You’re talking about the last two years in the playoffs, and comparing it to regular season. It means nothing. It’s deflecting, it’s delusional, and it’s silly. It’s a real silly comment.
Zolak: You’ve dug a massive hole. Now, the question is. Do you allow them to keep digging it? Like, that’s the that’s the problem you’re facing here. It’s one thing to make a move and fire your coach mid-season. When’s the last time you’ve fired one this early. You already said it, they’re not going to the playoffs. Are we going to wait another month and a half? You going to do it in January?
Bertrand: No.
Zolak: This is going to this is going to accelerate the process. This makes the team start thinking about doing something, because now our head coach is just trying to deflect here.
Listen To The Full Segment Here!
3 Stars: Bruins waste strong showing from Joonas Korpisalo
Third Star: Tyson Foerster
Oct 29, 2024; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Philadelphia Flyers right wing Tyson Foerster (71) celebrates with his teammates after scoring a goal against the Boston Bruins during the second period at TD Garden. (Brian Fluharty/Imagn Images)
It seems like every time the Bruins lose, it’s a ‘Bruins Killer’ stabbing ’em with a goal or two. Tuesday night was no exception there, really, as the Flyers’ Tyson Foerster opened this game with a second-period strike that ultimately held for the game-winning goal by the end of the evening.
For the 22-year-old Foerster, that’s now four goals (and five points) in four career games against the Bruins. That also means that Foerster has averaged 1.25 points per game against the Bruins since the start of last year. That’s tied for the third-highest point-per-game total against Boston over that span (minimum four games played), tied with the Panthers’ Aleksander Barkov and trailing only Nikita Kucherov (1.50 points per game) and Sam Reinhart (1.33 points per game) over that stretch. Some damn elite company.
Second Star: Joonas Korpisalo
DENVER, COLORADO – OCTOBER 16: Joonas Korpisalo #70 of the Boston Bruins tends goal against the Colorado Avalanche in the second period at Ball Arena on October 16, 2024 in Denver, Colorado. (Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
If the first 10 games of the 2024-25 season have told us anything, it’s that the Bruins are going to lean on Jeremy Swayman as something closer to a workhorse goaltender. That’s new to both Swayman and the Bruins for that matter, really. The Bruins had targeted Swayman for about 55 starts this season — ex-Bruins netminder Linus Ullmark’s desire to start 55 games played a factor in their decision to trade him, as the NHL season is only 82 games, not 110 games, long — but his current pace has him slotted for something closer to 57 or 58.
So, if that pace holds, that leaves Joonas Korpisalo with about 25 starts to call his own. And if there’s a crime to be found within Tuesday’s game, it’s that the Bruins outright wasted his best performance yet.
It wasn’t a night that saw the Finnish-born Korpisalo challenge Ron Tugnutt’s record, no, as he was hit with just 18 shots by the night’s end. But the looks thrown at No. 70 were of the high-danger variety, and right off the bat, too, with Korpisalo making some downright dazzling stops in the opening eight minutes of the first period.
“I thought [Korpisalo] gave us an opportunity to win,” B’s coach Jim Montgomery said following his team’s defeat. “He didn’t face many shots, but he faced some high-quality shots, and I can think of at least three great saves.”
10 games in is not make-or-break time, and I’m not gonna pretend to tell you otherwise, but if a goalie who entered play with an .850 save percentage on the year (and had been sitting on the bench for 13 days) gives you this kind of performance, you gotta have something to show for it.
First Star: Samuel Ersson
Oct 22, 2024; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Philadelphia Flyers goaltender Samuel Ersson (33) in the tunnel before game against the Washington Capitals at Wells Fargo Center. (Eric Hartline/Imagn Images)
The Bruins did not make life as hard as they could and should have against Samuel Ersson — a three-shot third-period performance comes to mind there — but a donut is a donut and the 25-year-old Ersson got his on Tuesday night behind a 23-of-23 performance against the Bruins.
Honestly, where Ersson (an .872 save percentage through six games entering Tuesday’s game) deserves the most credit in this one is for that third-period sequence where he somehow kept a sneaky Brad Marchand look from inching over the red and into the net for what would’ve been a game-tying goal.
