The Bruins hammered that point home just one night ago when they rallied for five goals in the third period to beat the Penguins in Pittsburgh, the kind of character win last year's squad would have struggled to achieve.
But in the early stages of the 2010-11 season there is one trend that is becoming disturbingly familiar to last year's roller coaster ride. While the Bruins have been nearly perfect away from the Garden with a 6-1-0 road record, their struggles on home ice has continued into this campaign.
Thursday night's showdown with the hated Habs was the latest example, as Montreal scored a pair of third-period goals to send a capacity crowd of 17,565 home disappointed as the Bruins fell 3-1 to the Canadiens.
"I don't know what's going on," said Bruins forward Milan Lucic, who set up Boston's lone goal with a pretty feed to Zdeno Chara. "We're finding ways to score on the road. We're doing the right things on the road and the pucks are going in, but for some reason at home it's not going in for us."
The Bruins are now just 2-3-1 at home this year. That follows a 2009-10 campaign that saw them go just 18-17-6 at home, including a Winter Classic victory at Fenway Park. The Bruins endured a 10-game winless streak at the Garden in the middle of the season, and only Florida had less home wins in the entire NHL.
"I don't feel like we're playing different [at home]," said Lucic. "I don't know what it is. The fans have been great so far. They're behind us 100 percent. It just seems like we're not as sharp as we are on the road."
The main difference so far has been the Bruins' struggles to score at home. They have just 12 goals in six games at home, while piling up 29 goals in seven road games. The defense has been sharp regardless of the venue, allowing 13 goals on the road and 13 at home, but creating consistent scoring chances and cashing in on them at the Garden has proven a difficult task.
"I don't know what the solution is," said Bruins forward Blake Wheeler. "Guys talk about being able to score and putting up seven goals on the road and then coming home and getting one. That's unacceptable."
Not all the Bruins believe that things have gotten that bad at home. The Bruins haven't exactly been getting blown out at the Garden. Their last three losses have been by two goals or less, including a 2-1 defeat to St. Louis in a shootout on Saturday that still earned the Bruins a point in the standings.
"Obviously, we won the last couple on the road, but we’ve played some pretty solid games at home too that could’ve went either way," said forward Shawn Thornton. "So I definitely don’t feel that we’re any less prepared at home."
Preparation may not be the issue, however. Execution has been the problem. Wheeler was asked if the Bruins were pressing too hard to make the perfect play at home, rather than sticking to a simpler game plan and just trying to put as many pucks on net as possible.
"Yeah, I think that's probably true," said Wheeler. "I think on the road there's definitely more of an emphasis, because of the environment, to keep it simple and you know, let the home team come to you and let them kind of make mistakes and capitalize on their mistakes. I don't think we should play any differently home or away, I think we're guilty of that, but home's where we got to play our best. We got to make this building a tough place to come into."
The Bruins will have plenty of chances to turn things around at home in the near future. Four of their next five games are at the Garden, including another key Northeast Division clash with Ottawa on tap for Saturday.
