POSTGAME QUOTES BOSTON BRUINS VS ST. LOUIS BLUES Saturday, October 26, 2019

BOSTON BRUINS HEAD COACH BRUCE CASSIDY On the kill… Well, they gutted it out. I mean that was a turning point. If St. Louis scores, you probably have a different game. Not saying we wouldn’t be able to hang on and win but gives them life. I think there were a couple of times there we could’ve cleared it and got ourselves out of trouble. That’s been a bit of an Achilles heel for our penalty kill. Our numbers are excellent, but over the last couple of years, just getting that timely clear, but we always hang in there willing to block a shot, clear people out, but we could make life a little easier on ourselves if we could do that, so we’re working on that to do it as a group. But at the end of the day, they sucked it up, got it done, and it was a big point of the game tonight.

On limiting ’s ice time… We do on the PK. If you look at the PK numbers, he’s not out there. He’s typically going to go out there once in a two-minute penalty. So, if he changes in 30 seconds, we’re probably going to – unless there’s a real important draw maybe in the last 15 seconds of a penalty kill, but we’re just trying to run him out there once, whether it’s first – we started using [Sean] Kuraly, [Chris] Wagner, like the start of the third, put them out there towards the end at well. Those are situations we have to manage, and we’re trying to, specifically with him, and even with Marchy [Brad Marchand]. A little different animal, Marchy, but at the end of the day, that’s one thing we’re cognizant of every night, especially when you’re playing three in four nights. We took a few more penalties then we would’ve liked to tonight. We can help ourselves there, but at the end of the day, I thought it was reasonable, his PK time.

On Anders Bjork… Well, we lost him early on, because he’s not on either power play, and our first one takes up a big chunk of it, even if he was on the second one, so we were trying to find him minutes as the game went on. I thought their line played really well. Like [Par] Lindholm was good as well, [Danton] Heinen was good; they complemented one another. It just worked out that they got caught. When they were up, a penalty came one way or another, but we eventually got to them, and I thought Anders was – nice to see him get rewarded; he made a nice play. Something we talked about this morning with Joe McDonald from The Athletic, right here. We talked about our D getting involved. That’s a good example of when your D can join the rush as a second layer when you have a good breakout and it’s clean and that allows them to make some plays. And Anders, that was a bomb. It was a good shot. It’s something I don’t know if he had a couple of years ago, that one timer. I thought he was good hunting pucks; I thought he was good on the walls. He got stripped a couple times in the D zone by heavy teams, so that’s the education part for him now. He’s against men every night, especially a team like that, but I thought he held his own.

On if the team’s reaction to Bjork’s speaks to how tightknit they are… Listen, Anders is a great kid. Guys love him. He works hard; he’s quiet, no maintenance, he comes to work every day. So, I think they’re genuinely happy for him because he’s gone through a couple of tough injuries and he’s worked his way through it, and it looks like he’s going to be a player. I don’t want to jump to conclusions after two games, but so far so good.

On how good it is to see Bjork finish chances at this level… Well that’s it. Coming out of training camp, we thought he played well. The discussion was will he be in our top 12