Boston Bruins

Max Jones Is Back With The Bruins and Getting Back To Business

Published

4 months ago

January 22, 2025

Andrew Fantucchio

AP Photo/David Zalubowski

All the issues the Boston Bruins have faced this season stem from their tumultuous training camp.

Up and down the roster, multiple players missed time for varying reasons. Some have since recovered and found their game. Others have not.

Max Jones never got a chance to either way. At least, not until now.

After being sent down to AHL Providence earlier in the year, Jones has a businesslike attitude as he returns to the Bruins lineup on Wednesday.

“It feels good,” Jones told reporters this morning in Newark. “I was just focusing on day-to-day business and working on myself, feeling good, and growing my game back to where it should be, and it feels like it’s been in a good spot. I’m excited to get up here and do what I can to help this team win some games.”

A depth signing by the Bruins during the offseason, Jones missed the majority of training camp due to a lower-body injury and it clearly showed once the regular season began, as he struggled to remain in the lineup.

Even when he did play, Jones usually had a negative impact, accumulating eight penalty minutes across four games without registering a single point before the Bruins demoted him in early November.

“It’s not easy, the mental side of the sport,” said Jones. “It’s probably the toughest thing when you’re dealing with stuff like that. To me, it felt like it was a snowball effect of things: getting hurt, and then the team wasn’t playing really well, and trying to stay in the lineup.”

Jones found a sense of stability in Providence, scoring 11 points with eight goals in 23 games for the baby Bruins.

That stat line isn’t one to marvel at. However, Jones’ change in mentality will be if it allows him to maintain that production in his second stint with the big club.

“You just got to roll with the punches, stand up and go back to work,” Jones said. “That was something my parents relayed to me: to wake up positive each day and not feel down or sulk. It’s a get-up and get-to-work kind of attitude, and that’s what I try to focus on, day in and day out. There are lots of ups and downs to the season, and you have to roll with it.”

Of course, the most significant change for Jones in his return to Boston is the head coach, as Jim Montgomery was still behind the Bruins bench the last time with the team. Now, it’s interim head coach Joe Sacco writing out the lineup each night.

“He was really good with me when I started the season, trying to find ways to make little things happen that would stand out so I could stay in a lineup and keep growing my game,” said Jones. “He just wants me to play fast, Max Jones hockey. Play fast and hard up and down the sheet and create a little chaos.”

Jones will fill in for the injured Mark Kastelic on the Bruins fourth line tonight next to Johnny Beecher and Justin Brazeau as they visit the New Jersey Devils at 7 p.m.