Bruins notebook: Too many 'too many men' calls for Bruins

BEDFORD -- Unfortunately for the Boston Bruins, the too many men on the ice penalties are not a new phenomenon. The Bruins have now racked up five too many men on the ice penalties during nine playoff games during this current Stanley Cup playoff run and have been assessed more of them than the rest of the NHL combined during the postseason.

The Black and Gold are in danger of setting the record for too many men on the ice futility and this comes after they were whistled for a whopping eight too many men on the ice infractions during the 82-game regular season. Sure, there’s a bit of a heightened chance for chaos on the bench when a team is matching lines or switching up forward combinations at a fast and furious pace.

But it’s also something the B’s coaching staff knows is unacceptable during the Stanley Cup playoffs, particularly when some of them seem to be pretty run-of-the-mill mental breakdowns by Bruins players. Jim Montgomery said he might have to go back to the youth hockey method of literally grabbing players to keep them from hopping over the boards and inviting the wrath of the referees.

“It’s good to set records. That’s a positive, right?” said a thoroughly sarcastic Montgomery while speaking after getting directly off the B’s charter flight at Hanscom Airfield. “I take full responsibility. I have to be clearer and I have to be louder, and if I have to start grabbing people’s pants so they don’t jump when they shouldn’t, I’ll start doing that.

“All of us together, the communication and the receiving of the communication needs to be better. Last night [in Game 2], there was no excuse for it. I’d like to say that it’s easy to solve with our group, but it’s a different player at a different moment. Sometimes it’s that a guy is coming to change and then stops and goes back [to the ice] and the guy watching the change has to make sure he comes to the bench while watching where the puck is. The last two it was guys jumping when they’re not even supposed to be the one going on the ice. So that’s why I say that it’s clear that is my responsibility to make things better in those areas.”

With that, Montgomery said “I don’t want to answer any more” questions about the too many men on the ice penalties while looking as annoyed as he’s ever allowed himself to get during a media availability session.

That is all well and good if the B’s can iron out there too many men on the ice problems but given their past history, this feels like something that’s going to continue to crop up requiring further elaboration when it does. The Bruins just have to hope it never hits them at a critical moment in these Stanley Cup playoffs when every little misstep can be the difference between winning and losing in the postseason.