Whatever Bruce Cassidy said to the Bruins during the second intermission worked.
Boston exploded for four goals in 5:44 during the third period in its 4-3 Game 4 win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Monday night. The Bruins now hold a pivotal 3-1 series lead.
Things started to take a turn after a Terry O’Reilly-like hit from Charlie McAvoy to Jordan Staal helped light a fire under Boston. And it seemed like a totally different team once the third rolled around.
But Bruce Cassidy’s message was simple: Just stay in the game.
“No I mean it’s typical, a couple of things we can do better for offense, like I said changing sides behind the net we thought would be a better approach than shaking a guy one on one walking up the half wall,” the head coach told reporters during his Zoom postgame press conference. “That seemed to work better the other night to be honest with you, got a lot of slot looks, that worked pretty well in the double-overtime game so obviously they’ve made an adjustment not to let us have that time and space. That way we’re playing a little close to the net. The wraparounds, Reimer plays deep in his net, that’s a difference with him than (Petr) Mrazek, so some of those wraparounds there may be some pucks lying around or coming out the other side like Cliffy’s goal, he might not be able to get out and challenge like Mrazek could, so just a few minor adjustments. And other than that, just stay in the game, keep playing, maybe you know push the envelope a little offensively. You’re down a couple, having trouble scoring so you’re not going to go out there and gamble, but you need to be proactive offensively and it worked out in our favor.”
It certainly did.
The Bruins have a chance to close out the series Wednesday when they play Game 5 at 4 p.m. ET.
