BOSTON — After beating the Chicago Blackhawks in the 2019 NHL Winter Classic, many expected the Boston Bruins would come out flat Thursday night against the Calgary Flames at TD Garden.
And after five minutes, those predictions appeared to be coming to fruition.
Boston fell into an early 1-0 hole after Michael Frolik scored a shorthanded goal early in the first period. While the Bruins responded to take the lead and ultimately survived a hectic third period to notch a 6-4 win, head coach Bruce Cassidy isn’t pleased with how his team has been starting games on home ice.
“Listen, we want to start better at home,” Cassidy said after the win. “It’s a concern of mine. I don’t know if it’s a concern of the guys in the room because I think they have some confidence to come back, but it’s something that we had established here and it’s getting away from us. So, we have to look at that. I don’t know if it’s anything you fix overnight, but it’s something as a staff we have to talk about. Today, you know, like after Christmas (against New Jersey), you think, ‘well, the Christmas break,’ today it’s a let down from the Winter Classic. Blah, blah, blah, right? We got to be ready to go. It’s that freakin simple and we weren’t. Now, we were able to come back so that’s the good news, but something we would like to reestablish. We’re going to jump on teams in the first period, especially a team that played a back-to-back.”
The slow start didn’t bite the B’s on Thursday, but it was a concern in the month of December. While a fully-loaded Bruins team, which rarely has been seen this season, has the firepower to crawl out of an early hole, coming out slow at home is a habit that could prove fatal later in the season if not corrected.
Here are more notes from Bruins-Flames:
— Despite all the injuries they have sustained in the early part of the season, the Bruins now have an even 50 points at the halfway mark of the season. While it hasn’t been pretty at times, Cassidy is pleased with his team’s place after 41 games.
“I feel good about it to be honest with you,” Cassidy said after the game. “Right now we’re halfway through the year and, as you said, Game 41 we’re at 50 points. If we replicate the first half we’re at 100 points. We’d like to think we’ll get better simply because a lot of the guys that were out that are key contributors are now healthy.
“I’d like to think we can improve in our second half. Get some of the younger guys a little more comfortable to give us some of the offense they did last year and go from there. So, how do I feel? I feel pretty good, but we’re always going to push to get better and strive to for that complete 60-minute game.”
— Charlie McAvoy has missed the last week with a lower-body injury, but Cassidy gave an encouraging update on the young defenseman.
“Charlie is progressing well,” Cassidy said. “We talked about that this morning. We hope to see him back on skates early next week and from there, I don’t know what day he would be in the lineup but it wouldn’t be too far. We’re hoping.”
— Jake DeBrusk and Brad Marchand each scored two goals in Thursday’s win over the Flames.
