The Bruins don’t have much time to dwell on Wednesday’s season-opening rout at the hands of the Capitals, as the Black and Gold will head to Buffalo to take on Jack Eichel and the Sabres in their home opener Thursday. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m.
Here are a few notes ahead of the Bruins’ first matchup against an Atlantic Division opponent:
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Tuukka Rask
Bruce Cassidy
Jaroslav Halak
Given the porous defensive effort in front of him, Halak fared well against an onslaught from the Capitals — his two goals coming from a one-time bomb off the stick of John Carlson on the power play and a garbage-time goal from Lars Eller.
That sets the stage for Rask to start in Boston’s home opener on Monday against the Ottawa Senators, who are poised to be a punching bag for the rest of the Atlantic Division all season.
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“Not on the back end,” Cassidy said of lineup shuffling. “Halak will start up front. We’re discussing that, so we’ll probably make a switch up front.”
It was hard to find many positives from the Bruins’ performance on Wednesday, but one group in particular that stood out for all the wrong reasons was the new-look third line of Sean Kuraly, David Backes, and Ryan Donato. Combined, the trio was on the ice for one scoring chance for the Bruins. For scoring chances against the Bruins, Kuraly and Backes were on the ice for 10 apiece, while Donato was on the ice for 11.
This might be a chance for Anders Bjork to see what he can do after missing all but one preseason game while recovering from shoulder surgery.
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It can be easy to place most of the blame on a sluggish blue line, but Cassidy harped on the need for the B’s to show much more an overall compete level — with lazy turnovers and poor play off the wall leading to numerous chances for the Caps.
“Defending,” Cassidy said of what needs to immediately improve for his club. “That starts, has started for us a lot, in the offensive zone. We haven't been strong enough on pucks, so we lose some battles or turn pucks over. Our third forward’s thinking offense and they're coming back at us. Odd-man rushes were probably the most we've had in my tenure here. Slot coverage, we got away from that by losing battles off the wall.
"Some of it is poor positioning and that's on us as a staff to make sure that gets straightened out. But we need to be harder on our battles and not allow them easy access to the ice. That's where we'd like to start, cut down on the high-quality chances and see where that leads us."
? Bruce Cassidy this morning in Buffalo: "We take a lot from [last night]. We were not very good in many areas, so it needs to be addressed." pic.twitter.com/UNqDKHVRpm
— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) October 4, 2018