Finally, four and a half months since their playoff collapse against the Panthers and after a six-game preseason grind, it’s time for Jim Montgomery and the Bruins to drop the puck on a new season.

Montgomery himself would be the first to tell you that there’s always jitters with Opening Night.

In fact, Montgomery told his team that his pits were already running before he even took to the ice for Wednesday’s morning skate at Warrior Ice Arena. For Boston, the return to the rink and a raucous TD Garden comes with the club celebrating their centennial year, the current on-ice team going through a slight youth movement, with both Matt Poitras and Johnny Beecher making this year’s Opening Night roster, and with Brad Marchand set for his first game as the team’s captain.

It’s a lot for one night.

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But for the Bruins, the focus has to be on the upstart Blackhawks, especially with the club fresh off a come-from-behind stunner of a win over Sidney Crosby and the Penguins last night in Pittsburgh.

• “They play fast,” Montgomery said of the Blackhawks. “I thought they were really mobile on D. They took away time and space well. You could tell it’s early in the year. There’s a lot of breakdowns both ways.”

  The Blackhawks and Bruins split last year’s season series, with the home team winning each game.

  Here are four player to watch for in tonight’s Opening Night tilt at TD Garden…

• David Pastrnak

  

  Sep 29, 2023; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Bruins right wing David Pastrnak (88) gets ready for a face-off during the second period against the Philadelphia Flyers at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports

• There’s something about Opening Night that really seems to get David Pastrnak going.

  Excluding his two midseason debuts, one due to call-up and the other to injury recovery, Pastrnak enters tonight’s contest with five goals and 11 points in seven Opening Night contests. Pastrnak’s best Night 1 performance came last year in Washington, too, with No. 88 on the board with a goal and four points.

  Pastrnak is also coming off a 61-goal campaign for the Bruins, and it’s no secret that the center-needy Bruins are going to need Pastrnak to drive the team’s scoring up front.

  Montgomery also noted that special teams are always an issue for teams in the opening days and weeks of the season, and Pastrnak’s one-time bomb is a definite weapon for the club and could serve as the strong start that Boston’s man advantage needs out of the gate in 2023-24.

  Pastrnak scored two goals and added an assist in two games against the Hawks in 2022-23, and has seven goals and 12 points in 14 career games against Chicago.

• Connor Bedard

  

  Oct 10, 2023; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Chicago Blackhawks center Connor Bedard (98) looks on before a face-off against the Pittsburgh Penguins during the first period at the PPG Paints Arena. (Charles LeClaire/USA TODAY Sports)

• No shock here: Connor Bedard is already looking like a very capable NHL player.

  And someone that Jim Montgomery & Co. need to focus in on tonight.

  “It’s another player and it seems like he’s going he’s going to be another extremely dynamic player. You see the way he carries himself,” Montgomery said. “Another special player, another special individual that fans get to see. Some of the things he’s done in the exhibition season, he’s going to be a player that we’re going to have to make sure we mark up quickly and certainly first and play against them, we’re not going to let up.

  “We’re going to be aware of him every time he gets on the ice. That’s how much he’s impressed us.”

  Montgomery and the Bruins got a peek at Bedard’s skills Tuesday night, obviously, with the 2023 top pick on the board with one assist and a staggering 11 shot attempts in Chicago’s win over the Penguins.

• Johnny Beecher

  

  Sep 24, 2023; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Bruins center John Beecher (19) waits for play to begin against the New York Rangers during the third period at TD Garden. (Eric Canha/USA TODAY Sports)

• While a lot of the focus tonight will be on Matt Poitras and his fit throughout this nine-game trial run with the club, it’s Johnny Beecher who I’ll have an extra eye on in this one.

  Expected to center Boston’s fourth line with Milan Lucic and Jakub Lauko, how the Bruins utilize Beecher and his line will be a fascinating watch. If you want to apply the logic of Beecher being the Tomas Nosek replacement, it would be a steady diet of defensive-zone shifts and minutes for the 6-foot-3 Beecher.

  But it feels like this fourth line could have some slightly different deployment, especially with the speed element between Beecher and Lauko, and with Lucic’s ability to be a net-front threat.

  One thing I’m curious about: With Bedard being such an excellent skater, do the Bruins try and put Beecher on him out of the gate? It’d be one hell of a gigantic test for Beecher in his first game, but it’s similar to what Bruce Cassidy did with Sean Kuraly whenever the Bruins went against Connor McDavid and his all-world speed.

• Taylor Hall

  

  Sep 28, 2023; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Chicago Blackhawks forward Taylor Hall (71) skates against the St. Louis Blues at United Center. (Jamie Sabau/USA TODAY Sports)

• With this being the centennial celebration, the building will be full of former Bruins. But two of them will be on the ice, with Nick Foligno and Taylor Hall now with the Blackhawks as a result of Don Sweeney’s lone cap-clearing move this past summer, and Hall is a player to watch in this one.

  Especially from a Bruins team that knows him all too well.

  “An air of confidence [and] he gave us incredible mismatches when he was on the third line,” Montgomery said Wednesday morning when asked about what Hall brought to the team during his time with Boston. “And I think it went really unnoticed how great of a teammate he was.”

  “I thought he was really dialed off the ice and he was really dedicated to the game,” Marchand said. “When you come across guys with the talent that he has and being a real hyped-up superstar at a young age, you don’t know what their work ethic is all the time. And that’s one thing I liked about him, he put a ton of time into his body and making sure that he was prepared and he was just a great dude. Awesome guy off the ice, had a lot of fun being his teammate. Very easygoing, very easy to talk to.”

  Hall has also made a habit out of giving his former teams a little somethin’ somethin’ when going up against them after their split.

  Following his move from Buffalo to Boston in 2021, Hall torched the Sabres for six goals and 12 points in 12 head-to-heads. Since leaving New Jersey, Hall has recorded eight points in 14 meetings with the Devils. Even Edmonton, who took him with the No. 1 overall pick in 2010, hasn’t been spared from Hall’s mini-revenge tours, with Hall having recorded seven points in 11 games against the Oilers since they traded him.

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