BOSTON — Up and down the Bruins bench Saturday, there was the feeling that something was missing from the start of Game 5.<\/p>\n
The Bruins did not have enough energy or commitment to the finish to finish off the Maple Leafs on home ice. As a result, the Bruins allowed the visitors valuable momentum that they turned into a pair of first-period goals and a 2-0 lead that they would not relinquish.<\/p>\n
“It clearly wasn\u2019t good enough,” Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy lamented after. “We let them get to the top of the paint for a couple of goals that we\u2019re generally solid on. We had a couple of two-on-twos that turned into two very good chances, happened up there.<\/p>\n
“So, clearly, we\u2019ve got to address that. Those aren\u2019t odd-man rushes, that\u2019s not stretch plays, that\u2019s just basic two on twos that we need to communicate better, square up better, defend better. Then obviously, you want a save, as well, mixed in in those, and that didn\u2019t happen either. So, the stuff that we\u2019ve done lately: defend, get saves, that didn\u2019t happen early on. We found our legs eventually and fought our way back in, but the start wasn\u2019t good enough.”<\/p>\n
“Yeah, we knew they were going to play that way. Shame on us for not coming out better \u2013 having a better first ten minutes there,” McAvoy said of Toronto’s goals by Connor Brown and Andreas Johnsson. “We knew they were going to come like that, their backs are against the wall, and they\u2019re going to continue to come like that so we got to go back and make sure we\u2019re prepared to start the next game.”<\/p>\n
McAvoy was on the ice for the second goal but also on the ice for Boston’s first tally in the second, making it a 2-1 Leafs lead.<\/p>\n
“We knew they were going to come out hard,” McAvoy added. “We’ve just got to match that intensity and, you know, a couple good bounces for them, couple good plays and we\u2019re down two-nothing early so we got to assess that, but we\u2019ll be fine, we\u2019re as confident as ever in here. I thought we really held the play starting there when Backs [David Backes] got us on the board in the second all the way through the end of the third I thought that we carried the play and the shots, you know, definitely showed that and we\u2019re fine. We have positives we can pull from this game, we\u2019re going to be fine for Game 6.”<\/p>\n
The problem Saturday is that the Bruins could not sustain much. Fifty-one seconds after the Backes goal, the Leafs answered with Tyler Bozak score. Most of all, there will be a Game 6 because Leafs goalie Frederik Anderson stopped 42 of 45 Boston shots on the night.<\/p>\n
“We ended up getting 40 plus shots, I think we had 45 shots so we were getting the puck to the net,” McAvoy said. “He made some saves there, especially in the third period, some chances that we had that could have went in. So I felt like we could have tied it up, a lot of guys in here think that, but no sense in hanging our heads on that, we\u2019re still up in the series and we\u2019re in a good position and we just need to, you know, refocus here, take away the good, assess the bad and be ready to go for Game 6.”<\/p>\n
“You\u2019ve got to give their goaltender credit,” Cassidy said. “Both games we\u2019ve lost, we\u2019ve put over 40 shots on net. At least 20-something chances, not all on net, that were great chances. So, he was very good tonight; let\u2019s face it. He made a lot of good saves. The goals we got weren\u2019t cheap. Maybe the last one he lost track of, but we were around their net a lot. They got out to the early lead. It\u2019s always easier to play with the lead. I wouldn\u2019t say it wasn\u2019t meant to be. I thought we were very close. I mean, Pasta [David Pastrnak] had a rebound there that he made a hell of a save on, could\u2019ve made it 4-4. Then, obviously from there it\u2019s anybody\u2019s game. So, we pushed back, just give him credit. He made saves.”<\/p>\n
The Bruins haven’t gotten a point out of the Bergeron-Marchand-Pastrnak line the last two games they’ve played together. Bergeron returned Saturday and had six shots in 21 minutes of ice time.<\/p>\n
“I won\u2019t project past Game 6,” Cassidy said. “He made it through today\u2019s game healthy, finished the game. You always want to see how they are in the morning. I don\u2019t anticipate there will be any issues going in to Game 6. Of course, that could change, but that\u2019s the way it is right now.”<\/p>\n
Cassidy, asked about Tampa Bay advancing to the second round earlier in the day with a win over New Jersey, didn’t want to get into hypotheticals.<\/p>\n
“No, we don\u2019t talk about Tampa Bay,” Cassidy added. “We talked about, the other night, this morning, we talked about how the two Stanley Cup finalists from last year couldn\u2019t close out. It\u2019s not easy. So, let\u2019s just stay in the moment and stay focused, not think about tomorrow or what we\u2019re going to do if we win or don\u2019t win. Just go out and play.<\/p>\n
“Whether that has any effect or not, I doubt it. I think the players, generally, our guys are a very professional group. They go show up and play. We saw that with our pushback. We just dug ourselves a hole we couldn\u2019t quite dig out of, and nothing to do with Tampa Bay or what was ahead. We\u2019ll talk about what\u2019s ahead when we get our fourth win.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BOSTON — Up and down the Bruins bench Saturday, there was the feeling that something was missing from the start of Game 5. The Bruins did not have enough energy or commitment to the finish to finish off the Maple Leafs on home ice. As a result, the Bruins allowed the visitors valuable momentum that<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":131991,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[362,45],"tags":[246,249,1795,2056,1619,2057,253,2058],"class_list":["post-78174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-all-sports","category-nhl","tag-boston-bruins","tag-bruce-cassidy","tag-bruins","tag-cassidy","tag-charlie-mcavoy","tag-leafs","tag-nhl-playoffs","tag-tuukka"],"yoast_head":"\n