Jim Montgomery scrambles the Bruins lineup on Monday.
A completely revamped Boston Bruins lineup in spite of starting the season with a 2-0 record.
The Boston Bruins have kicked off the regular season with 2 wins through their first 2 games, but if you thought that would be enough to satisfy Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery you would be sorely mistaken.
In spite of his team being undefeated on the season thus far, on Monday the Bruins bench boss completely scrambled his lineup by making significant changes to his forward lines as well as shaking things up on the blue line as well. The Bruins top 3 lines are all seeing significant changes, but with the Bruins not hitting the ice until Thursday it remains to be seen which of these changes will stick.
Perhaps the most notable change, due in large part to the fact that it is being made to the team's top line, is Montgomery's decision to replace James van Riemsdyk on the top line and swap in Jake DeBrusk in his stead. The 34 year old van Riemsdyk has been red hot to start the season for the Bruins with 2 goals over his first 2 games in a Bruins uniform whereas DeBrusk has no points through the Bruins' first two games.
Even more surprising than the change itself is that van Riemsdyk is being bumped all the way down to the team's third line where he will play alongside Charlie Coyle, who has been bumped down from the second line, and Trent Frederic.
Replacing Coyle on the second line is 19 year old rookie Matthew Poitras, a big sign of the level of confidence Montgomery has in the young man this early into the season. Morgan Geekie will join him on the team's second line after being bumped up from the third line.
Montgomery also switched his defensive pairings but they saw several different looks during the morning skate so it's hard to pin down exactly which way the wind is blowing in that regard.
Here is how the forward lines and defensive pairings looked during Monday's morning skate:
DeBrusk-Zacha-Pastrnak
Marchand-Poitras-Geekie
Van Riemsdyk-Coyle-Frederic
Lucic-Beecher-Lauko
Lindholm-McAvoy
Grzelcyk-Carlo
Forbort-Shattenkirk
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