Even before the Bruins took the ice Thursday night for their first game of the season at the Garden, they were already losers at home.
Although it was played in far-away Prague, Czech Republic, the Bruins’ 5-2 loss to the Coyotes Oct. 9 was considered a home game — technically leaving the Bruins without a home-opening victory since 2007-08.
“We’re looking forward to improving that part of our game from last year,” defenseman Zdeno Chara said before Thursday’s game.
“We know that our record was better on the road than we had at home, and that’s motivation for us.”
Last season the Bruins went 18-17-6 at home (21-13-7 on the road), then saw their season end with a pair of home losses in Games 5 and 7 during the 3-0 second-round collapse against the Flyers.
If the Bruins are to put that failure behind them and reach the Stanley Cup finals for the first time in 20 years, taking care of business at the Garden is critical.
“It’s important to remember that we probably didn’t do as good a job as we should have last year in our own building,” head coach Claude Julien said. “We had a better record on the road than we did at home and you know that bodes well for your team on the road, but we want to give our fans a much better performance than we did last year.”
