Chris Wagner’s second-period goal on Sunday isn’t going to make many highlight reels by the time these revamped Stanley Cup Playoffs come to a conclusion in October.
It wasn’t flashy, but Boston’s lone tally against the Flyers in the round-robin opener didn’t need to be. Whereas most of the Bruins’ high-skilled forwards were stuck in neutral, Wagner kept things simple in the closing minutes of the second period, firing in a puck from within 10 feet of Philly's net.
The Walpole native's attempt didn't sail directly toward Carter Hart in net, but Robert Hagg's skates were there for the assist — as the biscuit bounced off of the defenseman in the crease and behind Hart to put Boston on the board.
Sean Couturier
Patrice Bergeron's
Bruce Cassidy's
"I'm thinking we need to make a better friggin' play with the puck, is what I'm thinking," Cassidy said postgame following the 4-1 defeat. "We need to make better plays with the puck, be stronger on it, take care of it, more urgency. You can use any adjective you want. That, to me, what was the difference in the game."
Sean Kuraly
Joakim Nordstrom
Charlie Coyle
(A look at Boston and Philadelphia's shots during 5v5 play. While Boston has had success with low-to-high plays in order to open things up, the Bruins were far too comfortable firing in pucks from the blue line on Sunday, with far too many attempts either getting blocked or turned aside before getting close to Hart.)
David Pastrnak, Brad Marchand, Torey Krug
Charlie McAvoy
Jack (Studnicka)
David Krejci
(Along with the multiple pass-first miscues Cassidy mentioned above, this was another example of Boston turning down a potential shot on net in pursuit of a slam-dunk strike. With instead of uncorking a one-timer from his usual spot on the ice, Pastrnak instead goes for the extra slap pass — which goes into no-man's land after Marchand was not ready for the feed. Boston ultimately did not land a single shot on goal during this power play.)
"I think maybe we just change our mentality a little bit," Krug said of necessary adjustments. "Try to get away from those pretty plays. We make one pass, we put it on net, we recover a puck and now those seams and those pretty plays that you speak of will be there. So let's just change our mentality, one pass — put it on net, recover pucks, work hard to recover pucks. It's obvious that things are bouncing out there. So we'll just change the way we approach things and hopefully it works out for us."
"I
t's no secret we have the luxury to use these three games to build our game. We have to start at the bottom in the D zone and work out from there," Krug said. "Until you reach that perfect game, you're always striving for it. Right now we have to change some things.
"Get a little bit greasier, raise our compete level. … We got to start building our game the right way because if we don't then we're going to be showing off the game one of first series in not feeling comfortable. Yeah, we have some things to pick up and fix, and you can count on this group to do that."