BRANDON, Fla. – David Krejci, Kevan Miller, and Tuukka Rask were not on the ice for the Bruins Sunday afternoon practice at Ice Sports Forum, but nobody is in jeopardy of missing Game 2 on Monday, according to Bruce Cassidy.
Krejci has a “minor injury,” according to the Bruins coach, while Rask and Miller had a maintenance day.
And no, Rask was not looking for a new pair of skates.
It was easy to tell which team went ahead in Game 1 of the second-round series. The Bruins were loose on the ice, a brief session where they worked mostly on special teams.
Some more notes from the day:
- The Bruins felt better about the play of Charlie McAvoy, who had a rough series against the Maple Leafs in the first round. McAvoy missed a month at the end of the season because of a left knee injury and played just four games before the playoffs. The longer the Bruins extend their playoff run, the more time McAvoy will have to find his stride, which he started to do in Game 1 against the Lightning.“We liked the way he was moving yesterday,” Cassidy said Sunday. “He was more involved offensively. Obviously coming back, missing time, it took him a while to catch up to speed and then you’re talking about the playoffs.”
- Danton Heinen got the call again in Game 1 after returning to the lineup in Game 7 against the Maple Leafs. The 22-year-old was a healthy scratch in Game 6 and added a goal in Game 7. He played well again Saturday. Despite just one shot, he played a strong defensive game. “Naturally, it’s not as crazy as Game 7,” Heinen said. “You have to calm yourself down, get back to work. I felt all right, a little bit of a slow start there, but once we got our legs under us it was a good effort.
A look from the Lightning perspective:
- Brayden Point and Ondrej Palat did not practice Sunday, but Lightning coach Jon Cooper said they’ll be ready for Game 2. Point and Palat, along with Tyler Johnson, are Tampa Bay’s shutdown line but they struggled against the Bruins. Palat and Point combined for a minus-9 Saturday.
- Cooper was blunt in his assessment of his team’s effort against the Bruins. They had a week off after eliminating the Devils in five games, but it was the Bruins who looked well rested. He even alluded that Brad Marchand’s goal, which was wiped out by a ticky-tack cross check penalty, should have counted. “Our game is not at a playoff level of the other team that just played a Game 7,” he said. “That’s what we have to change tomorrow night or it’s going to be a long season for us. To be honest, I don’t know, I bet you all five game against New Jersey we had more intensity than we had all night and that’s not going to get it done. You can sit here and look at out-shot, out-attempted them, all that, but what really matters is we lost 6-2 and really it was 7-2, they had one taken away. Let’s call it what it is.”