Even though the majority of the names on the back of their jerseys remained the same, the Bruins brought a much different team to Buffalo Thursday night than they brought Wednesday to Washington.
They created scoring chances and executed on them. They were sound defensively, not giving Buffalo much to work with, and they were perfect on special teams. All-around it was exactly what the Bruins needed after being embarrassed Wednesday night against the Capitals.
“We all knew to a man, from the coaching staff on down, that we weren’t good enough [Wednesday] night, so we needed to be better today and we were. Guys we count on led and the followers followed," said head coach Bruce Cassidy."That’s the way it’s scripted and it worked out for us tonight.…
Cassidy juggled things up a bit offensively as Ryan Donato played to the right of Jake DeBrusk and David Krejci on the second line. Joakim Nordstrom and Noel Acciari moved up to the third line with David Backes, while Danton Heinen, Sean Kuraly and Anders Bjork made up the forth line. It was also Bjork's season debut.
From the start, the Bruins showed fight and a sense of urgency. Two things missing from their loss to Capitals.
After coming in in relief for Tuukka Rask Wednesday night, Jaroslav Halak made his first start as a Bruin and did not disappoint, stopping all 32 shots he saw.
“It feels great. It would be nice if we only got the win, but it makes it more special that I had a shutout, but I think it was a great team effort," said Halak. "We all knew that last [Wednesday] night was just a bad effort all around and we needed to be better. Tonight we came out and played really well from the top of the puck.…
Defensively the Bruins did not give Buffalo much in the offensive zone, but when Buffalo had one of their few scoring chances, Halak was there to make the big save.
“He was solid, I don’t think we left him out to dry like we did to Tuukka and Jaro [Halak] in the second of the game last night," Cassidy added. "That was part of the game plan, part of the talk this morning. That’s just not our identity. Teams are going to get chances but we were way too loose the other night in our coverage and our rush defense. That was addressed. And when he needed to be solid, he was. I thought he tracked pucks really well. We gave up some outside stuff and he was able to track those and get them out of harm’s way.…
Halak wasn't the only Bruin to shine Thursday night as Brad Marchand led the Bruins with a four assist night. But what impressed me the most was the work that led to the first two of four Bruins goals.
On Zdeno Chara's game-opening goal, the play was created with a diving backcheck from David Pastrnak in his own zone to break up an odd-man rush. Seconds later Brad Marchand skated in with two defenders in his face, showed patience as he curled away from the defenders, only to find an open Chara streaking down the vacated left side.
On their lone power play of the evening, Donato was able to intercept a Sabres pass, control the puck after it bounced away from his stick and carry the puck into the offensive zone, all while dealing with heavy neutral zone traffic from the Sabres. Seconds later it was a slick pass from Marchand finding the tape of Donato who deposited the puck into the back of the net for the first goal of the season.
The effort all-around was much better and one to expect on a more consistent basis. The Bruins will look to repeat their performance Thursday when they host the Ottawa Senators Monday afternoon at TD Garden in their home opener.
Urho Vaakanainen sent to Providence I thought there was a chance Cassidy would have put Vaakanainen into the lineup against Buffalo after Matt Grzelcyk and Brandon Carlo struggled against the Capitals. But Cassidy stuck with his guns and was rewarded for doing so.
Vaakanainen was sent to Providence Friday morning, but this may be a move to simply get Vaakanainen some playing time as the Providence Bruins open their season Saturday night against the Laval Rocket.