The Bruins made their way to the buses for the short drive back to Toronto's Hotel X Tuesday night — bruised, beaten, frustrated, forlorn ... whatever adjective you want to use.
Rather than putting the Tampa Bay Lightning on the ropes, Boston let a commanding 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference Semifinals slip through their grasp — with Ondrej Palat's overtime winner in Game 2 giving the Bolts new life in the best-of-seven series.
Thankfully, Boston — handed its first defeat up in the bubble since August 13th — won't have to dwell on Tuesday's result for too long.
After all, the two titans of the Eastern Conference will meet back on the ice at Scotiabank Arena less than 20 hours from now.
Thanks to the NHL's bizarre decision to race to the finish line in this heavyweight bout, the Bruins and Bolts are going to be subjected to a pair of back-to-back slates if this series indeed goes the distance — starting with Wednesday's Game 3 meeting scheduled for an 8 p.m. puck drop.
With momentum now on Tampa Bay's side following Tuesday's OT victory, such a quick turnaround leading into Game 3 could be a brutal break for Boston, given the deadlocked state of the series. Bruce Cassidy sprinkled in some optimism when offering his retort to disadvantage his club currently faces.
"Sometimes it's good to get right back at it when you lose a hockey game," Boston's bench boss said. "We'll see tomorrow if that's good for us. You saw their energy early on, they had good push, usually after a loss you have that — they may be riding high and going to build off that because they want to even the series. So that's a tough one sometimes to answer."
As far as the personnel available for Wednesday's rematch, it appear as though Cassidy is weighing performance over fatigue when it comes to any adjustments, noting that no skaters were particularly taxed following a game that only stretched 4:40 beyond regulation.
As for the man in the net? Well ...
With Tuukka Rask out of the equation, Boston's backup in Jaroslav Halak is going to have to take the reins and lead this club through the gauntlet that is the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Losing your Vezina Trophy finalist in the midst of a playoff run would cripple most clubs, but Boston has benefited from the luxury of deploying Halak when needed — given that the 35-year-old veteran has established himself as arguably the most effective backup goalie in the league over the last few seasons.
But he is just that — a backup goalie, 1B option, whatever you want to name it — and is not used to the workload often pressed upon a club's go-to goalie, be it the regular season or the playoffs.
In fact, in his two years in Boston, there has only been one instance in which Halak has started games on consecutive days — and that was back in November 2018. Prior to that, you have to go all the way back to the 2014-15 season for the last time the netminder was asked to start on back-to-back days.
As such, Cassidy opted to keep his cards close to his vest when asked about who will be entrenched between the pipes for Game 3 on Wednesday.
"Well if there's 80 some (Tampa shot) attempts, then obviously he’s got to fight to see all 80 of them, so I imagine there'll be some fatigue there," Cassidy said of Halak. "I didn't think it was a taxing night in terms of high danger chances by any means. Obviously the last goal got scrambly in front of the net, there's a breakaway, but we were pretty good otherwise. We only took two penalties I believe, so our penalty kill was solid again, so we'll see how that it is tomorrow. If you ask me who my starting goalie is tomorrow night I don't really know, I’ll let you know tomorrow."
Cassidy's answer Wednesday afternoon shouldn't really surprise you.
For as much as fatigued Halak playing his second game in as many days should raise some concerns — especially against a juggernaut of a team in the Lightning — it's not like the Bruins have plenty of palatable options here in net.
Yes, they do have *options* here, of course. But is Cassidy and his staff going to sleep any better tonight if they opt for Dan Vladar in net a pivotal Game 3?
Vladar is an easy guy to root for, and certainly deserves his current promotion as Boston's new backup. You could make the case that the 23-year-old Vladar was the best goalie down in the AHL this past season, leading the league with a goals-against average of 1.79 and save percentage of .936 over 25 appearances.
But this isn't the Utica Comets or Hershey Bears. This is the Tampa Bay Lightning — a team that racked up an absurd 62 wins a season ago, and are awfully motivated to rewrite last year's playoff exit. Yes, Vladar might have rest on his side, but deploying a green goalie that hasn't played ONE game up in the NHL ranks against a Tampa club like this — in the Eastern Conference Semifinals — is an ill-advised move, to say the least.
Sure, Halak may not have a full tank once puck drops on Wednesday, but Halak playing back-to-back nights is still much more of a sure thing than the gamble you'd make by opting for Vladar.