After recording points in 10 straight games to begin last season, the Boston Bruins are weathering more early ups and downs than they have become used to in recent years.
The finale of a three-game Western Conference road trip brings the Bruins up against the lone NHL team without a point in the bank in the Nashville Predators on Tuesday night.
Boston is an even 1-1-1 in its past three games and is 3-2-1 overall. Despite the mixed bag of results, coach Jim Montgomery's team has left something to be desired in its overall effort.
"The last couple of years, we've gotten off to great starts and we played fast. I don't like the pace we're currently playing with," Montgomery said. "Results, I'm not worried about right now. It's the process, and the process is not (consistent with) our desires right now."
The latest mark in Boston's uneasy start was a 2-1 overtime loss at the Utah Hockey Club on Saturday.
A second-period goal by Cole Koepke had the Bruins up 1-0 until Utah -- which Montgomery said was more "determined" -- tied the score with 5:09 left in regulation before winning in overtime.
"We need to make sure that we're honing in on one shift at a time," Boston defenseman Brandon Carlo said. "We will get momentum one shift, kind of lose it the next."
Koepke leads the Bruins with six points, including three goals. His plus-10 rating is tops in the NHL, just ahead of linemates Mark Kastelic and John Beecher.
Jeremy Swayman has also had an up-and-down start in goal. Since signing an eight-year contract extension only two days before the season began, Swayman has made 30 or more saves in two of his outings and allowed four goals in the other two.
"(He is) an elite competitor and he's going to do everything he can to fight for second or third chances that are in front of him," Montgomery said of Swayman.
The Predators are off to their worst start in franchise history at 0-5-0, though the 2002-03 team was winless through its first seven games with a tie and two overtime losses on its record.
This season's skid continued with a 5-2 loss to the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday, though Steven Stamkos scored his first goal with his new team on a third-period power play after netting 555 goals over 16 seasons with the Tampa Bay Lightning.
"I didn't see (this type of start) coming for this group," Nashville coach Andrew Brunette said. "Being this at the start of the year is a little harder to take because I think you'd be excited to play. There's frustration with everybody right now."
A veteran like Stamkos has been through a season's ups and downs many times before, so he knows that despite Brunette saying the team had "really positive energy compared to the (previous) two games," it is past the time to start producing results.
"We can't just keep saying the same things over and over in terms of, ‘OK, the effort was there, OK, we had a lot of shots, we had a lot of looks,'" Stamkos said. "At some point, we've got to go do it."
Nashville's roster has seen recent additions from AHL affiliate Milwaukee in defenseman Marc Del Gaizo and forward Zachary L'Heureux; the latter was recalled on Monday morning.
