Since Bruce Cassidy took over for Claude Julien behind the Bruins bench, he’s always held his players accountable.
That was no different after Thursday’s loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins when he revealed he wasn’t frustrated with his veteran players, instead disappointed.
Disappointed with their failure to recognize the value of the puck, Cassidy asked his veterans to “respect the puck.”
Through 20 minutes of Saturday’s rematch with the Penguins, it was much of the same of what we saw Thursday night: uninspired hockey, poor puck management and defensive zone breakdowns.
In a sense, the same ol’ song and dance.
But then the second period came and the Bruins decided to respect the puck, respecting it enough to deposit it into the Penguins net five times in the frame.
“We wanted to come in the second period really hard and just get the puck deep, get our forecheck going. Sometimes in a close game you can’t find legs, so it takes a while and that was our focus in the second period,” said David Pastrnak.
“We dumped some pucks and we went on the forecheck and got scoring opportunities and today we capitalized on them. That was a huge part.”
The Bruins scored twice in the periods first 45 seconds, getting goals from Patrice Bergeron and Pastrnak. But it was the work that led to each goal that Cassidy has wanted to see more of.
After a dump in by the Bruins, Craig Smith—who was promoted to the top line alongside Brad Marchand and Bergeron—got in on the forecheck, disrupting the Penguins breakout, eventually forcing the puck to Bergeron.
After that it was Nick Ritchie knocking Marcus Pettersson off the puck, leading to Pastrnak’s tally.
Once again the Bruins forecheck found a way to create offense.
“I thought the goals they scored today were excellent, there was no fluky ones, no freebees other than the empty netter,” said Cassidy. “Nice plays by high-end players.”
It was a seven-goal outburst by the Bruins, with three goals from Marchand, two by Pastrnak, one from Bergeron and one from David Krejci.
“It was all our top guys tonight,” said Cassidy.
“You’re gonna have games like this throughout the course of the year. I think with the type of resumes they have—the Pastas, Bergy, Marchy, Krech, these guys, they’re going to have games, we just haven’t had a lot of them for whatever reason. I think we’ve run into some really good goaltending.”
Entering Saturday without a goal in five straight games, Cassidy bumped Pastrnak down to the second line with Ritchie and Krejci, Krejci assisted on Pastrnak’s first of two.
His 500th career assist.
“It’s an outstanding accomplishment and I’m really happy for him. 500 assists, he’s a playmaker and I hope it means a lot because it’s incredible,” said Pastrnak. “Not many Czech players done it. I’m so happy for him, happy we got it done today.”
In the 14:01 of five-on-five ice time Ritchie, Krejci and Pastrnak skated together, the Bruins held the edge in:
Shot attempts: 10-6
Shots on goal: 8-2
Scoring chances: 6-2
Goals: 2-0
“I always like playing with Pasta, he’s such a gifted player and it seems like he’s always in the right spots especially in the offense zone and he makes things happen. It’s fun to play with a guy like that,” said Krejci. “We just play our game, but with him you can see it in practice. He shoots with a purpose, it’s just a matter of time with him. I’m happy he got two goals.”
As solid as the Krejci line was, the new look Bergeron line was even better.
With Marchand, Bergeron and Smith on the ice together five-on-five, the Bruins held the edge in:
Shot attempts: 16-5
Shots on goal: 12-4
Scoring chances: 9-3
Goals: 3-0
“I think it’s a good learning experience for our group, these are the games where you have to go through some adversity, play different games. It isn’t always going to be the same especially come playoff time,” said Marchand.
“You’ve got to be able to keep the lead, keep building on it and that’s one thing I think we did a good job of. Once we got the lead, we didn’t sit back, we kept playing and the goals we scored late ended up being big for us.”
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