BOSTON BRUINS HEAD COACH BRUCE CASSIDY on If He Expected a Sluggish Start Following the Break… Not Necessarily
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BOSTON BRUINS POSTGAME QUOTES BOSTON BRUINS VS ANAHEIM DUCKS Tuesday, January 30, 2018 BOSTON BRUINS HEAD COACH BRUCE CASSIDY On if he expected a sluggish start following the break… Not necessarily. I thought we had a good practice yesterday. Those afternoon practices sometimes – we went through that in Montreal where we were a little sluggish early, so we had an optional this morning for that reason, so we weren’t on the ice three times in 28 hours or whatever it is. We just didn’t have it early. I don’t know if it’s credit to them, or just our guys, or the break, whatever the case was, wasn’t good enough. We addressed it. I thought we were a lot better after that but, to get back to your question, maybe the break did have something to do with it. It didn’t seem to affect them as much, although I don’t think they were dynamic by any means, but they were better than us. On the early first-period power play… If you’re ever going to get a power play, where I think it’s tough is early in the game. I think the killers are always fresh, you’re not really into the game. I think those are statistically early in periods are tougher, I’ve found over the years. But, to not generate anything was disappointing. It was kind of like the rest of our first period: not ready, not executing, not fast, they jumped us, and not winning pucks. All of the above. So, we could have helped ourselves; there’s no doubt on that one, but I don’t think that’s the reason why we got behind, but we could have helped ourselves. On how Anders Bjork’s injury affected the lines… Well, we tried to move a few people around. Then, you get behind, now you’re double shifting maybe guys that are producers or what not. Then, maybe I don’t like a makeup of a certain line, so I tried to balance some heaviness with each line. Eventually, we found our way. I don’t know if that had much to do with I think our guys have a lot of pride, and they knew that they weren’t very good in the first period, and if we continued to play that way, it would be a long night. So, whatever the combinations were, I think they were going to go out and compete harder, and we did. On the updates on Bjork and David Backes… Bjork is upper body. Backes I have nothing. I went in there – right now, I think he’s fine, but I don’t know. Bjork, definitely upper body, and he’ll miss some time. I don’t know how much. On the plays that injured Bjork and Backes… The Bjork didn’t seem like much. Very surprised on the other one. It was late. I can’t tell if it was high, but certainly late. The game looked fast at times tonight, and I thought there was a few that could’ve been called, but you know how that works. My guess is they’ll take a look at it. I don’t know if that is automatic or not or we have to submit something, but it’s done now and not much you can do about it. On if Anton Khudobin looked rusty early on… Yeah, the first goal. He would be the first to tell you, he just kind of whiffed on it. I don’t know if it was a changeup or dropped, and they were hard in front of our net. The other one was a good shot. I think he could have got out, but there was a guy in his face. He was like the rest of our team in the first period – not very good. I can’t sugarcoat it. We got going, and we were the much better team the last 40, but we weren’t good early, and he was certainly included in that mix. On Khudobin’s response to falling behind… It was the start of the third, it was 2-0. There was a sequence of an odd-man rush; I don’t think we defended it very well, and then a shot and a rebound where he made two really good saves. So, good for him. He battled back. A two-goal night, at the end of the day, is giving your team a chance to win. Ultimately, he did that. It’s just, early on you don’t like to dig yourself a hole, and that’s where we needed one of those saves. On if Anaheim is a tough matchup for them… It can be, but I thought the last 40 minutes they had a tougher time dealing with us than we did with them. Now, they are protecting a lead, so the natural thing to do is to make sure you don’t get exposed, but I thought we certainly got better. It’s a good test for us. We haven’t seen as many of those as we did early on in the year. I thought we handled it well in LA and San Jose and some of those buildings, so we’ve just got to get re-acclimated with it, and I think we did as the game went on. St. Louis will be more of that, so ask me again Thursday night how we handle it, and I suspect we’ll be better prepared for it. On the point streak… I didn’t think that much about it. It’s nice to be on it, don’t get me wrong. I take a lot of pride in it. We try to win every night, and it’s a credit to the guys. It’s not going to go on forever; we all know that. It’s too good a league. It certainly put ourselves in a good position in the standings to get on that roll, but we’ll have to start a new one now. On if they missed Brad Marchand and Charlie McAvoy… Yes. Tonight, I thought we had a tough time finding a winger for Bergy [Patrice Bergeron] and Pasta [David Pastrnak]. [Danton] Heinen a little bit early on was feeling it playing against a bigger group. You lose Bjork, so maybe he could have been a fit. Then, we tried Schalls [Tim Schaller] a little later to have a little heavier guy. So, definitely. He’s a point a game guy, so he probably makes a difference. Charlie moving the puck out of our zone early, and [Noel] Acciari – we miss him tonight. It’s the type of game he is going to excel in and be able to push back, but that’s the what if game. You can’t worry about that stuff, but to answer your question, yes, we missed them all, but once we got playing, we were fine. On the power play to begin the second period… I think it did get us going, to be honest. We had a good minute possession time or something in their zone I think it was. I think it gave us some juice. You don’t always have to score on the power play. Eventually you do, but it gives you some life, and I thought it did for our guys. We didn’t continue with it, but it kind of got us feeling good about ourselves – the skilled guys. Their goalie – I thought he made some timely saves, some good saves. Both of them, even the other guy came in. Heinen late in the slot, Torey Krug down main street. That was a big save down 2- 0, but at the end of the day, they were a little better than us in that area. On if a recall from Providence will be made… I suspect tomorrow, it’s certainly something – we don’t have an extra forward right now unless Noel is ready to go Thursday. So, that’s something we’ll definitely have to look at in the morning, probably talk a little bit about it tonight if we get any further updates. We do have a healthy D – the seven D route we’ve tried, so that could be an option. BOSTON BRUINS DEFENSEMAN ZDENO CHARA On what happened in the first Anaheim goal... They flipped the puck and I didn’t know what happened afterwards; I saw the puck in the net. But, obviously, the play was driving to the net and took my feet out and that’s what. So. On if the puck went in off him and into the net... It did, you know, but I obviously didn’t see it. On the team’s slow start... Yeah, definitely something we need to be better at and, you know, make sure that we address that part of our game. On the hit on David Backes... Didn’t see it. From what I heard, the referees had a better look at it. They made a decision and it’s up to the officials and if the league maybe disagrees then they have, obviously, their right to make a call, but that’s up to the officials. On the team’s 18-game point streak ending tonight... Well, we’ve got to look at the next game. We can’t be looking back; we’ve got to be ahead and that’s very important for us, to make sure that – this part of the season everybody’s really playing desperate hockey; they’re chasing every point for either a better position into the playoffs or trying to get to the playoffs and we’ve got to realize that every team we’re going to play, they’re going to fight for their lives.