Boston Bruins head coach Claude Julien seemed pretty happy with his team’s effort after a 2-0 loss to the Montreal Canadiens. His discomfort only really stems from the feeling that there’s very little margin for error.
Basically, he thinks the injury-ravaged Bruins have to be at the top of their games all the time to overcome a skeleton roster, as he told CSNNE.com.
“I thought, you know, we played hard, we competed, we were smart and we didn’t give them much,” Julien said. “It’s unfortunate but this is where we realize that right now when you play a team that’s healthy and that’s going extremely well, it almost takes a perfect game [to get a win].
“I credit my players for just going out there and competing hard and well, and giving ourselves a chance. The one thing, as you know, we’re not scoring goals easily these days. So we’ve really got to get our noses dirty in front of the net, and throw some pucks in areas where we can jump on those loose pucks.”
In some ways, it should get easier soon.
The Bruins sent Jordan Caron and Matt Lindblad back to the AHL today after recalling them on Saturday, indicating that there’s a chance a forward or two (maybe David Krejci and/or Brad Marchand) might be able to return to the mix again soon.
On the other hand, Boston faces another tough opponent tomorrow, as they take on the Pittsburgh Penguins.
After trying to avoid making mistakes against Montreal, the Bruins will be tested to contain Pittsburgh’s potent attack. Either way, they’ll need to push themselves to the limit with key players out of the lineup.