With the way the Bruins have to play to succeed, relying on defense and goaltending, they are going to be in a lot of tight games. Many of those close contests will go to overtime and the 3-on-3.

They need to be a lot better at it than they have been.

The B’s are just 2-6 in overtimes, with the last loss coming on Tuesday as they dropped a 4-3 decision to the Minnesota Wild. So it stood to reason that coach Jim Montgomery and his staff dedicated a chunk of Thursday’s practice to some extended 3-on-3 work.

What was he looking to instill?

“Better puck management, better defensively and just overall a little more urgency,” said Montgomery before the team took off a two-game roadie to Winnipeg and Minnesota. “We’re 2-6 in overtime in 3-on-3, so obviously we’re not near good enough, so we have to get better at it and we have to practice it more.”

Losing the puck just once can be fatal.

“As soon as you lose possession, you’re playing defense for what could be five minutes. So we need to value puck possession again, making sure that we’re taking shots that have a good chance of going in,” said Kevin Shattenkirk. “And if not, hang on to it and try to create 2-on-1s and odd-man chances that are going to confuse the other team and get your chances there. You’re probably going to give up a few offensive scoring chances but you don’t want to give that puck away once you get it back. And you want to make sure you value that.”

With better 3-on-3 play the B’s could be on quite a roll right now. Three of the last four games have been lost in OT. They still get a point out of those games, but a loss still feels like a loss.

“That’s (three) extra points right there and that matters at the end of the season,” said Charlie Coyle. “So it’s something that’s good to go over and have everyone on the same page on what we’re doing. And I think the more we practice, we’ll get more comfortable out there, instead of second-guessing what the other guy’s doing. Can I trust him to be there? Is it man-on-man or is it not? So I think just having that talk, going over the video, practice, it’s going to make us a little more comfortable with that situation. And going over little plays that we can run or just having that stuff in your head to execute out there instead of just winging it.”

The way the B’s lost Tuesday’s game also had a lot to do with a frustrated player, Jake DeBrusk, trying too hard to make something good happen. After tying a career mark with 27 goals last year, he’s stuck on four through 29 games right now.

I think it’s also a product within that game, he had opportunities. Literally the 3-on-3 shift before, he took a shot from a real good area and he sailed it just over the crossbar,” said Montgomery. “And I could sense his frustration, but I thought he had a really good game. His speed was really noticeable. He had the other team on their heels and he was creating opportunities, not only for himself but for his linemates. I felt he was on the verge, and then that factors into it. He just missed so now he’s not patient and he lets a shot go. I’ve talked to him – and I’m not saying anything here that I haven’t told him – and said ‘That’s not good game management on 3-on-3.’”

Only success in the goalscoring department will snap him out of it, said the coach.

“It has to go in,” said Montgomery. “It consumes you. It’s no different than a baseball player or a quarterback that hasn’t thrown a touchdown in three quarters. It’s your job, right? And when it’s your job, it consumes you.”….

The B’s have been leaning heavily on their top players like David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand to carry the offense. With secondary scoring hard to find, the B’s are ranked 16th in the 32-team league on goals for (3.17), perfectly mediocre in that department.

But that’s not what concerns Montgomery.

“We’re not too concerned that it’s down. We expected it to be down,” said Montgomery. “We are a little more concerned with how hard we are defensively. That’s a bigger concern to be honest. Because that’s an area where we thought is teachable, and also myself and the coaching staff, we need to be better to make sure we’re firm and hard and not giving up as many quality chances as we are.”

Montgomery said that the B’s allowed seven “Grade A” chances in the third period on Tuesday.

“That’s not good enough. You’re not going to close out games. And it’s all 5-on-5,” said Montgomery.

Shattenkirk said the team has become a little too passive in close-out situations.

“In a way, I think we’ve let teams dictate the play in the third period. We kind of wait to see what they’re going to bring after we’ve kind of established our game for two periods,” said Shattenkirk. “We just have to be more confident in what we’re doing in the offensive zone — sustaining pressure, keeping puck possession through the neutral zone. All those things build up to playing less in the D zone. But when you do get there, you have to end plays quicker, you have to understand teams are going to be putting a lot of pucks to the net and trying to get goals we saw the other night, that second goal from (Kirill) Kaprizov (a rebound off a long shot). That’s on us and it’s an easy fix. We just have to make sure we’re confident playing defense and being aggressive playing defense.”…

Matt Poitras has played on a line with Morgan Geekie with the Bruins. Now he’s playing with Morgan’s little brother, Conor, on the top line for Team Canada in the World Junior Championships to start on December 26. Conor Geekie was drafted 11th overall by Arizona. Matthew Savoie, taken ninth overall by Buffalo, will round out that line.

“I’ve got twice the reason to watch now,” said Morgan. “I haven’t watched in a long time. It’s good. I’m excited for it.”…

Matt Grzelcyk did not practice and Montgomery termed him as day-to-day with an upper body injury. He had taken a big hit from Marcus Foligno early on Tuesday and left for much of the first period, but returned to finish out the game.