Bruins Notes: Bruce Cassidy Felt ‘Playoff’ Atmosphere In Tough Loss Vs. Wild

The Boston Bruins dropped a tough one to the Minnesota Wild on Wednesday. The 4-2 loss ended a run in which the Bruins earned at least one point in six straight games.

The visiting Bruins had a streaky performance, which started by falling 2-0 to open the first frame. Boston then tied it up behind goals by center Craig Smith and left wing Brad Marchand. Unfortunately for the Bruins, the scoring stopped there and the Wild would tack on two more to end the game.

The highlight of the game was the physicality, which led to the Bruins’ eventual downfall.

Bruce Cassidy was asked about how contentious of a game it was on Wednesday night.

“There’s always games you look at that you’re going to draw comparisons to playoff hockey and I think as you said, this was probably the closest we’ve been in a while,” Cassidy said, as seen via a team-provided video. “So (the game) obviously didn’t start as well as we’d like. We knew that would be a challenge.

“But we pushed through it, we got ourselves back in the game. They were ready to play physically and eventually we found our physical game so I thought it pretty good there and then our power play got us back to even and unfortunately, they were better than us in the third,” Cassidy continued.

Charlie Coyle was asked why the Bruins-Wild games are always so physical despite only playing twice a year.

“They play hard, they’re a good team, they play rough, they play stingy it feels like a playoff game out there,” Coyle said. “They play us well and it’s always a battle. You know what’s coming. We had to make sure we bring it ourselves they came out flying right away and I guess we weren’t able to match it best as we could.”

Bruins Wrap: Boston Falls To Wild In Physical Matchup

Mar 16, 2022

Here are more notes from Wednesday’s Bruins-Wild game:

–Cassidy felt as though the Bruins’ third-period lapse was due in part to the fatigue setting in on the second night of a back-to-back.

“Could be a function of fatigue, could be a function of a lot of different things, but I think typically fatigue affects your brain and your decisions and now you’re not playing the right way,” Cassidy said.

— One game-defining difference between the two teams was the Wild’s ability to get second-chance goals. Cassidy would’ve liked to see more second-chance scoring by the Bruins.

“They scored a goal like we did, they got into the net second chance,” Cassidy said. “I think our guys have to understand, our top guys. You have to score like that. Get inside, you have to be willing to get inside and get two for ones and I’m not sure we did enough of that tonight to get past two goals.”

— Tomas Nosek was able to hold his own in the absence of Patrice Bergeron. The Bruins lost the faceoff battle 34-32, but Nosek was able to win 12 of 16.

“Well, you can’t replace (Bergeron) but I thought Nosek did a good job in the faceoff circle for sure. We want some draws one-on-one with the goalie at six on five, that’s when we rely on Bergeron, we didn’t make the play we wanted to but we won the draw. So, an opportunity for other guys,” Cassidy said.

— Trent Frederic got in an early fight that really set the tone for the rest of the night.

“Well, it certainly doesn’t hurt when you’re in their building and I think they were looking for it to be honest with you and we kind of quieted that part of it down,” Cassidy said. “Listen they’re a big physical team, I think they wanted to establish physicality and they did. We pushed back so it ended up being to me just a hard game on both sides.”

The Bruins will look to rebound Friday against the Winnipeg Jets, with puck drop scheduled for 8 p.m. ET.