Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy wasn't thrilled with much of the lineup following Saturday's clunker against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Boston allowed four unanswered goals, including three in the second period, during a 5-2 defeat.
"We've got to create our identity where we're hard to play against for 60 minutes -- not 30, 20, 40, whatever it is. It's got to be 60 and we weren't," Cassidy said during a postgame video conference, as shared by the team. "Then you get into their type of game where we'll say trading chances, but still more transition there. For us, I think we need to play more of a puck possession in the O-zone, harder to play against in our end.
"Some easy goals for them tonight that they worked for don't get me wrong, but I think we were soft on pucks when we just needed to be harder," Cassidy continued. "And if you score five or six goals, those don't matter as much, but we didn't."
The Bruins allowed the Maple Leafs to play their fast-paced game, getting out in transition while Boston's forecheck didn't force Toronto to buckle down. And defensively, the Bruins had a few mistakes in their own end where they weren't able to clear pucks. Toronto ended up scoring on two of those mistakes.
"You just can't do that. You got to be hard in those areas and a lot of talent on the other side and any team you play against can't clear pucks with one hand your stick. So that's on us," Cassidy said. "Like we got to decide, you got to work harder to keep the puck out of your net in this league and we've had identity of being that team and we've got to reclaim it."
Here are some other notes from Bruins-Maple Leafs:
-- The Maple Leafs benefitted from a first-period officiating decision, and while it didn't play a major role in the final verdict, it did benefit Toronto as the game-tying goal.
Toronto's John Tavares was credited for a goal at 12:12 despite the Bruins net coming off before the initial shot from Mitch Marner. The NHL offered a statement indicating the call on the ice was the puck crossed the goal line after the actions of Patrice Bergeron caused the net to be displaced. The NHL further confirmed the Maple Leafs player (Marner) had "an imminent scoring opportunity" before the net was displaced.
Cassidy didn't seem to agree.
"They use the rule that we knocked that off, which is actually incorrect. We didn't knock the net off, (John) Tavares knocked the net off. He's the one that went into it," Cassidy said. "So I think they were looking to see if the puck actually crossed the line, I couldn't tell I never saw a replay. I assume it did. So that's how that played out. So it's hard to challenge when they tell you puck crossed the line and we knocked the net off, and that's the reason why they allow the continuation, which is right, that's the rule, but the way the rule's written it seems like it says that we have to knock the net off and (Bergeron) certainly made contact in the crease with Tavares, but we didn't knock the net off."
-- Cassidy wasn't putting the loss on Linus Ullmark, who stopped 31 of the 35 shots he faced including a number of high-danger chances.
"I don't think it was at his best tonight by any means, but we weren't at our best in front of him. This is not on the goalie," Cassidy said. "I think for us to win he would have to have a really, really good game and match their guy right? He was pretty good as well. But this isn't on Linus tonight."
-- Patrice Bergeron made arguably the save of the game for the Bruins in the first period. Yes, that's right. Bergeron backed up Ullmark and took a shot from Toronto defenseman Morgan Rielly right off the chest to keep Boston ahead 1-0.
-- The Bruins fourth line of Trent Frederic, Tomas Nosek and Karson Kuhlman put together a strong performance with a handful of good opportunities while battling hard on the forecheck.
"I think they're continually getting a little bit better each game, trying to play well defensively and then still get going the other way when when the situation dictates," Cassidy said. "They've got some sort outs to do in D-zone for sure, and we knew that might happen, Nosek's new in the middle and (Frederic's) playing the wing, but all in all, I've been pleased with their game."
-- Boston will return to TD Garden on Tuesday as the Bruins host the Ottawa Senators.
