Bruins coach Jim Montgomery talks to his players during the third period of Tuesday’s 2-0 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers. Charles Krupa/Associated Press

Coach Jim Montgomery had tried many different line combinations and changes over the first 10 games, but there was one grouping he had not corrected.

This is about to change.

Center Elias Lindholm signed a seven-year, $54.25 million contract to become a strong two-way center while feeding David Pastrnak, one of the NHL’s top scorers. The theory was sound. but it hasn’t worked so far. The final straw was Tuesday night’s 2-0 loss to the previously porous Philadelphia Flyers.

In Wednesday’s practice, Montgomery completely overhauled his front line, cutting the Lindholm-Pastrnak connection and also sprinkling players throughout the squad on the fourth line, his only effective forward combo.
In Montgomery, Pavel was center of Zacha Pastrnak and John Beecher, Lindholm was center of Brad Marchand and Mark Kastelic, Matt Poitras was center of Trent Frederic and Justin Brazeau, and Charlie Coyle was center of Max Jones and Cole Koepke.

Tyler Johnson, still waiting to be signed, has made a comeback on the Lindholm-Marchand line.

When it comes to personnel turnover, there aren’t many big moves Montgomery can make. He had a hard time explaining why the Lindholm-Pastrnak combination didn’t work.

“It should work,” Montgomery said. “Two smart hockey players, two players who see the ice very well, two players who can shoot and pass, two players who can skate. It hasn’t happened yet, so we’re changing it.

It was understandable that Montgomery would let the mixture marinate for a while, but a change had to be made. Lindholm and Pastrnak combined for a single goal at five-on-five against Montreal in the second game of the season.

Lindholm has failed to score a point in the last seven matches.

Lindholm missed the first week of training camp due to injury and that probably didn’t help, but he’s actually off to a good start with two goals and three assists in the first three games. It has since sent zeroes on the board.

“I think we’re a little bit incompatible,” Lindholm said of his connection with Pastrnak. “Obviously, for me, I haven’t been able to play the way I wanted to and I think it’s affected both of us. And I think he wants to play a little bit better too. When you’re at this level in this league, it’s a really good league, so it’s hard to connect.”

Lindholm was robbed by Sam Ersson for a chance in Tuesday’s loss to the Flyers, and he also had a nifty tip-in that was turned away.

“If luck comes like they do (Tuesday), then I’ll be fine, but that’s not good enough,” Lindholm said.

Marchand and Lindholm played together very little in some shootouts and four-on-four situations.
“Of course he’s a good player. He’s been around for a long time and when I played with him he was easy to play with. He works hard to win pucks and he has a good shot. I hope we can do something good,” Lindholm said.

While Zacha was on the left wing in the Lindholm-Pastrnak line, moving him to the middle gave Pastrnak some familiarity. Zacha centered him last year and the combo was quite successful during the regular season; He helped Pastrnak post a 47-63-110 season while Zacha had a career-high 59 points (21 goals, tied for career best).

Zacha faltered in the playoffs and was moved to wing, but the Bruins need to make the postseason first. This isn’t exactly a sure thing right now.

The break of the fourth line was also meaningful.

“The message to (Kastelic, Beecher and Koepke), and this was the most important message, was that you are leaving not to be ‘talented players,’ but to help others get better,” Montgomery said. “I don’t want their games to change. “I want them to head north, I want their work habits to reflect on other people, creating more turnover and more opportunities.”

However, any combination of lines will only work if a handful of top-tier forwards can overcome their ability to handle the puck. Passes are rarely on the stick, and when they are, they are fumbled by the receiver.
Players cannot even perform the simple task of moving pucks deep for line changes. On Tuesday, that snowballed after a failed five-on-three in the first period.

“Guys aren’t comfortable feeling the puck right now. The old adage of squeezing it tight. And that’s a mental thing,” Montgomery said. “I was surprised that we were on tight terms (Tuesday) night and didn’t execute. Because we had a good game, we attacked a lot against Toronto and we came away with a really good win.

“I thought we had a lot of (offensive) zone time in the first two periods, but we just weren’t capitalizing on the offensive opportunities that were available. Our control was pretty good for the most part. A lot of their offense came with puck decisions when we had it… and they feel like there are things that players don’t play with their instincts.”

“No matter what sport it is, you can’t play fast if you think instead of living in the moment. It is clear where the disk will go. That’s why so many disks are collected.

Towards the end of Wednesday’s practice, Frederic and defenseman Parker Wotherspoon got into a brief shoving match at the end of practice. It disintegrated quickly and could hardly be called pulverizing. But this was perhaps an indication of the increasing tension in the team.

The Bruins are 4-5-1 and, more importantly, are playing pretty badly every game.

Next up is an away game against Carolina, which has a 6-2 record. Winning isn’t a must yet, but Montgomery needs to see better execution. They’re running out of options.

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