Stuck in a three-game losing streak (0-2-1) for the second time this season, the Boston Bruins begin a new chapter as Joe Sacco debuts as interim head coach Thursday in a three-game homestand finale against Utah Hockey Club.
Something had to give amid Boston’s current sluggish start. The Bruins were dominated in a 5-1 loss Monday to the visiting Columbus Blue Jackets — who had lost seven of their previous eight — and fell back below .500 at 8-9-3.
While the Bruins have scored more than two goals just once in their last five games, focusing on the back end is a main way Sacco plans to help his team out of its rut. They have allowed 12 goals in their past two regulation losses.
“I think a lot of it right now is a mindset with the group,” Sacco said. “One thing we’re going to focus on is being a harder team to play against, I mean just stingier. … If you look at the 10 years I’ve been here, we’ve always been a team that takes pride in … defending the net front.”
Sacco assumed his new title Tuesday following the firing of Jim Montgomery, who was 120-41-23 in two-plus regular seasons and 9-11 in the Stanley Cup playoffs as Boston’s leader.
Sacco has assisted Boston’s three previous bench bosses in Claude Julien, Bruce Cassidy and Montgomery, all of whom have won the Jack Adams Award in their Bruins tenures. Sacco also has four seasons of head coaching experience with the Colorado Avalanche (2009-13).
Captain Brad Marchand, who has scored in just two of his last eight contests, knows that the players must accept responsibility for the decision by general manager Don Sweeney and the Bruins.
“This is a reflection of our play and it was avoidable,” he said. “If we would have done our job, (Montgomery would) still be around. We feel really terrible … that we let a really good coach and a really good person down.”
Plenty of Bruins have not lived up to their potential, including key offseason signings Elias Lindholm and Nikita Zadorov, and goaltender Jeremy Swayman, who held out until signing a contract extension just before the season.
“We have to get back to the simplest things, the foundation of what we are — and that’s working and competing,” defenseman Charlie McAvoy said. “There’s too much skill and talent in this room for it not to come together.”
Utah arrives in Boston having dropped back-to-back games and five of seven (2-4-1) following a 6-2 defeat Monday to the Washington Capitals in which the team’s power play was 0-for-7.
The Hockey Club is also just 3-7-2 after Oct. 19, when it beat the visiting Bruins 2-1 on defenseman Michael Kesselring’s first career overtime game-winner.
“It’s easy to sit here and say that we hit crossbars, but that’s no excuse,” forward Lawson Crouse said. “We have to find a way to put the puck in the back of the net.”
Coach Andre Tourigny shook up his lines in practice Wednesday, including moving winger Dylan Guenther onto the top line with Clayton Keller and Nick Bjugstad and dropping Nick Schmaltz down to the third line and second power-play unit.
Schmaltz has not scored this season, and just two of his 13 assists have come in the last seven games.
“I think it’s to take some pressure off him,” Tourigny said.
With four road games in six nights upcoming, Utah recalled goaltender Jaxson Stauber from AHL Tucson after Connor Ingram went down in Monday’s loss with an upper-body injury.
“I don’t know when (he will get a start),” Tourigny said. “One day at a time, (but) his time will come.”
