Montgomery: Orlov, Hathaway were ‘real good’ in Bruins debuts originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
The Boston Bruins welcomed two new players into the mix for Saturday’s game against the Canucks in Vancouver, and the team didn’t miss a beat.
The B’s cruised to a 3-1 victory to extend their win streak to six games. The highlight of the night was Linus Ullmark scoring the first goalie goal in Bruins history.
It also was the debuts for defenseman Dmitry Orlov and bottom-six forward Garnet Hathaway after the Bruins acquired them in a trade with the Washington Capitals last Thursday.
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Orlov played on the right side of the third pairing with Derek Forbort. The Russian defenseman is likely to play on a few different pairings as head coach Jim Montgomery figures out which partner is best for him. Orlov is capable of playing the left or right side of the blue line, which gives Montgomery plenty of options.
Hathaway played fourth-line right wing next to Tomas Nosek and Nick Foligno. This trio played 7:40 together at 5-on-5.
Orlov played 2:48 on the penalty kill, while Hathaway saw 1:18 of shorthanded ice time. The Bruins went 3-for-3 shorthanded to maintain their status as the league’s best penalty killing team.
What did Montgomery think of his two new players?
“Good. Real good,” he told reporters after the victory in Vancouver. “Really impressed with Hathaway’s details and penalty killing. Seems like he understands our d-zone coverage already. Orlov made some special plays, special passes on breakouts, in the neutral zone and in the offensive zone.”
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The Bruins’ coach praised Orlov’s hockey IQ with the puck, too.
“Real smart hockey player,” Montgomery said. “Smart hockey players know what they’re going to do with the puck before they get it, and he’s one of them.”
The Bruins’ four-game road trip is half over, and their next game is against the Oilers in Edmonton on Monday night. It’s a tough test for the Bruins because the Oilers are the highest-scoring team in the league and their best player, superstar center Connor McDavid, is the top Hart Trophy candidate and leads the scoring race by 25 (!) points. Boston’s penalty killers could be quite busy versus Edmonton, in which case Orlov and Hathaway would see plenty of ice time.
The trip concludes Tuesday night in Calgary, where the Bruins will play Milan Lucic and the struggling Flames.
