Marco Sturm Explains Changes To Bruins’ Forward Lines

Boston Bruins head coach Marco Sturm made some changes to the team’s forward lines on Friday.

As the Bruins were on a two-game losing streak, Sturm was looking to create a spark on offense. Sturm had an all-Czech first line, as Matěj Blümel and Pavel Zacha played on the top line with David Pastrnak. The second line saw Morgan Geekie play alongside Alex Steeves and Marat Khusnutdinov.

Sturm felt like the team needed to change something up and help spread out the offense.

“I think overall, it was just a better overall fit. We spread it out a little bit,” Sturm said, as seen on NESN’s postgame show. “I thought the Czech line was pretty good. The other guys were better, too. We just don’t want to put everything on one line and put the pressure on them all the time.”

The lines ended up paying off as Geekie scored twice en route to a 2-1 overtime win over the Los Angeles Kings on Friday.

Boston was also playing hard for Sturm, who used to be the coach of the Ontario Reign, the AHL affiliate of the Kings. He also served as an assistant coach for Los Angeles, as he was with the organization for seven years before becoming the Bruins’ head coach.

​”Anyone knows when you leave, you come back to your old stomping grounds, you want those two points badly,” Hampus Lindholm said. “I think we played our strong Bruins game tonight – kind of like the identity (Sturm) wants us to play. It was a perfect win that way.”

With the overtime win, the Bruins are now 13-10-0 and atop the Atlantic Division.