BOSTON — Bruce Cassidy never has been afraid to shake things up during a game, and he did just that Wednesday night at TD Garden.
After a so-so first period in which the Boston Bruins gave a meh effort, Cassidy shuffled the forward lines in the second and beyond, with the Bruins ultimately earning a 6-3 victory over the New York Rangers.
At the beginning of the game, Cassidy had rolled out these lines:
Brad Marchand–Patrice Bergeron–David Pastrnak
Jake DeBrusk–David Krejci–Marcus Johansson
Danton Heinen–Charlie Coyle–Chris Wagner
Joakim Nordstrom–Noel Acciari–David Backes
By the time the game was over, Heinen, Backes and Johansson all had run with Bergeron and Marchand on the top line, in addition to Pastrnak. The second line often featured DeBrusk, Krejci and Pastrnak, while Johansson also skated on the third line with Coyle and Wagner at times.
There really was no pressing need to shake up the lines, but Cassidy elected to do it anyways. Following the game, the Bruins head coach explained why.
“Well, it’s a short window of opportunity here with the full forward group,” Cassidy said. “Obviously, (Sean) Kuraly isn’t a part of that and won’t be in the next little while. But Johansson coming in, so you’re almost trying to get a look at him everywhere. That was all. Like I said, I think (Krejci) and DeBrusk lately have been a little bit stagnant, so put Pasta up there gives them a different look. You know, Marchy and Bergy, with Heinen, they’ve played with him. We tried to mix Johansson in there later, but he got a few shifts with Coyle, and then the power play starts, which is really tough to get a handle on a true measure of five-on-five with Johansson on any line tonight. So, that part of it we missed out on, but he got himself a game under belt. He hadn’t played in a while, so hopefully, like Pasta, each one he gets a little better.”
Pastrnak had himself a pretty stellar night, scoring a hat trick while adding a pair of assists. Just one goal and one assist of Pastrnak’s came at even strength, and both of them were with him playing with DeBrusk and Krejci.
Cassidy was reticent to commit to using that combination often from here on out, but he was pleased with what he saw.
“I did like what they did together,” Cassidy said. “I don’t know. I don’t know Saturday if we’ll stick with it, to be perfectly honest. We’ll look at it again. Usually video will tell you a few things on maybe there’s some chemistry with certain guys that you don’t see during the course of the game, and you go okay well maybe this will work. So, we’ll see how it plays out. Somebody ends up on their wrong side, whether it’s Johansson or Heinen as a winger with a left stick, so at some point we want to get solidified on that as well.”
Just five regular season games remain for the Bruins, so it seems likely Cassidy will continue to fiddle around up front to see what works best.
