Bruce Cassidy Knows Bruins Will Have ‘Hands Full’ In Blue Jackets Series

BOSTON — The Bruins will have to quickly put their exciting Game 7 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs behind them and shift their focus to the Columbus Blue Jackets, whom they’ll welcome to Boston on Thursday for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.

The Blue Jackets, as you may recall, swept the top-seeded Tampa Bay Lightning on April 16 and have been waiting to see who their opponent would be since.

Now the stage is set. And while Columbus likely is well-rested, head coach Bruce Cassidy knows his team is ready for the second round — no matter how quickly it’s starting after its first-round win.

“My initial thought is they beat a really good team,” Cassidy said of Columbus’ first-round sweep, “because I thought Tampa was lights out. We saw them first-hand late in the year. So clearly we got our hands full.”

Cassidy said they’re still going take in the Game 7 victory, but come Wednesday they’ll be right back to work.

“We’re gonna enjoy this one tonight,” Cassidy said. “But tomorrow we’ll be back in trying to break them down. I don’t mind the quick turnaround necessarily when you’re playing well. Our last two games we have played well. … The good news is we saw (Columbus) three times late in the year, that’ll help with our preparations. … We know they were physical against Tampa, they came after them, they got key saves, power play was lights out. So we got our hands full. But we’re looking forward to it.”

The fun starts Thursday at 7 p.m. ET at TD Garden.