David Backes logged zero minutes of ice time in Thursday’s 4-1 loss to the Maple Leafs, but the veteran didn’t need a viewing spot on the Bruins’ bench to diagnose the results from Boston’s lackluster playoff opener.
“I think Game 1 was a slap in the face,” he noted Saturday.
While Backes watched above from press level as a healthy scratch, the Bruins found themselves playing right into the Maple Leafs’ trap — winded from getting into too many track meets, and wincing from a surprisingly stout Toronto defensive effort.
Needing a response after Boston was bullied out of the offensive zone for most of the night, Bruce Cassidy turned to Backes — the 34-year-old power forward who, despite another dip in his offensive production this season, still offers plenty of value when inserted in the lineup.
“Something we were lacking - we addressed it,” Cassidy said. “We needed him to do it.”
Boston’s bench boss wasn’t looking for the 2019 redux of the Hanson Brothers when No. 42 hopped over the boards in the opening stanza of Saturday’s Game 2 rematch against the Leafs, but Backes didn’t need much direction in his return to game action.
His objective? Keeping things simple and play a straight-line game — and if it involves skating through a few Toronto skaters in the process? So be it.
"(I) was looking forward to this game ever since I was told I wasn’t going to be an active participant in Thursday’s game,” Backes said. “So I got to channel that I think in the right way in a constructive, controlled manner and was able to make a little bit of impact tonight.”
Backes might have taken his benching in stride on Thursday, but ‘controlled’ was far from the word that most would use to describe what Backes helped usher back into the Bruins’ DNA on Saturday night.
With seven hits landed in 12:12 of time on ice, Backes set an infectious tone from the opening puck drop, as an emboldened B’s club struck Toronto in the mouth in the opening stanza and didn’t let up — paving the way for a 4-1 victory to even up the best-of-seven series.
“We’ve got some guys who have been through it – a nasty series in the past,” Cassidy said. “We’re not a team that runs from a physical game. I think it brings out the best of us at times.”
After Toronto’s top line of John Tavares, Mitch Marner and Zach Hyman had their way with another skilled trio in Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak on Thursday, Cassidy signaled Boston’s willingness to combat skill with snarl from the outset — opting to place his fourth line of Noel Acciari, Chris Wagner and Joakim Nordstrom out in an effort to wear down the Leafs’ big guns.
“When a guy comes down hard on you and finishes a check, you’ll see some guys cough up pucks and it wears as the series goes on,” Charlie Coyle explained. “You know it’s a long series and it wears you down. So we start that right from the get go and they’ll remember it and it will go in our favor.”
It didn’t take long for one of those coughed-up biscuits to find itself in the middle of a Grade-A scoring chance. Deployed against the Tavares line in the opening minutes of the first, Backes steamrolled his way to a loose puck skittering behind the Leafs’ net, beating Nikita Zaitsev to it before feeding it in front of Coyle, who snapped it past Frederik Andersen to open the scoring and send a raucous TD Garden into the next tier of decibel-defying applause.
David Backes recovers the puck down low and feeds it in front to Charlie Coyle.
1-0 Bruins. pic.twitter.com/HZvbcherPB
— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) April 14, 2019
won't call myself a hockey genius or nothing but methinks the Leafs should start looking for better shots pic.twitter.com/FLb7hkz0d5
— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) April 14, 2019
What a dumb penalty by Frederik Gauthier. pic.twitter.com/gN9IUO9dfT
— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) April 14, 2019