Bruins notebook: Buy-in leading to success

For much of the evening Saturday the Bruins had their fist cocked and ready to connect with the knockout punch to the hapless Buffalo Sabres That punch never really came not until there were seconds left in the tournament when Sean Kuraly tapped in an Elias Lindolm shot pass to seal the challenge But while the challenge may have been frustrating at times something fundamental was unfolding The B s themselves did not get frustrated They trusted what they were doing They neither cheated for offense nor did they go into a protective shell They kept grinding away playing north as coaches like to say and never gave the Sabres much It was a sign that this club knows and believes in its identity that it is not a club that relies on a quick-strike offense but one that requirements to play to the structure that coach Marco Sturm has laid out for them It led to their third win in as plenty of tries this season OK we shouldn t get too carried away It was the Sabres a unit perpetually spinning its wheels But a hockey company that has every player pulling the rope in the same direction can have a lot more success than a quick perusal of the lineup might suggest That s one of the things that coach stated before the tournament It s vital not to get frustrated noted Pavel Zacha who has been an all-purpose beast in the first week of the season We have a system where we just keep coming winning the battles and create chances Especially when you create chances it s creating the momentum for the next line It makes you stay in the battle building up the other line and creating chances Of syllabus it gets a little frustrating but you have to push that aside We re on a wave now where we ve won three games But more importantly we re getting better every challenge That s something to look at and keep building We dependably look at one shift at a time That s one of the things we say here before games Don t look too much ahead and that helps with that The B s right now are a band that believes in itself They may not possess much wow factor after David Pastrnak but they believe the less sexy aspects of the match that they re executing will lead to success That s the central part too We got away from that a little bit last year mentioned Zacha after Sunday s practice Now that was the No message everybody necessities to buy into the system who you re playing with and what s your role on the unit I think the whole training camp the message has been clear and I think everybody has bought in so far It s still the start of the season but I think we re on the right track that everyone bought into what we need to do It s a really structured defensive tournament that we have The penalty kill has been doing pretty good too so it s something we also see as players in the locker room and appreciate We tell each other Great job blocking that shot Great defensive zone shift If we don t give them anything that s something we appreciate here in the locker room and it goes a long way Sturm called Saturday s challenge a dangerous battle for the way it played out The B s dominated the first period but had a mere - lead And specific of the things that Buffalo needed to happen to get back in it happened They got two power plays in the first six minutes of the second period But the penalty kill now -for- on the season did its job thwarted any momentum Buffalo requested to create and the B s went back to work There were a minimal situations where the D got the puck and in the past we did the D-to-D pass and we slowed everything down noted Sturm But Saturday it was boom-boom-boom then we got it back and we did it again We were on the same page And when an opponent comes in they re like Oh expletive those are the Boston Bruins They re going to pound pucks go hard on pucks and they re going to do it again The B s self-belief will be challenged on Monday when the Tampa Bay Lightning come to the Garden for the annual Columbus Day matinee at p m Various have picked the Bolts to overtake the injury-riddled Florida Panthers for Atlantic Division supremacy But they ve begun the season - and there will surely be a sense of urgency for the offensively potent Lightning Especially for our defense this is going to be a great test Their power play is one of the best in the league so that will test our penalty kill also That s one of the things we re going to have to avoid a little bit too especially a organization like that revealed Zacha The first meeting Washington was a tough company and then we have Tampa It s going to show us where we re heading We re trying to focus on the five-game segments It s good to have a gang like this at the start of the year a club that s offensive and knows how to win games too True grit Speaking of the B s identity another aspect was on display on Saturday In the first period -foot- -pound Mason Geertsen who has five -plus PIM seasons in the AHL looked to start something But he identified a crowd with the likes of Nikita Zadorov Tanner Jeannot and Mark Kastelic We want to have that identity and that grit and that toughness back and not just by one guy Now we have more guys disclosed Sturm If you saw Saturday they had that one guy up from the minors and then all of a sudden four or five of our big boys established up and declared something and then all of a sudden he got quiet That s the difference And if you don t have that I ve been on the other side too It s not fun The week ahead Sturm stated that Hampus Lindholm skated on his own before practice but was still termed day-to-day Sturm had not yet decided on his goaltender for Tampa when he met with reporters on Sunday The B s will leave for Vegas following Monday s meeting They don t play the Golden Knights till Thursday but they want to use the time to bond more as a company We put chosen thought into it because this is our only chance This is our only time to really connect and it s just going to help us mentioned Sturm