Bergeron 'Looking Good' for a Return in Game 5

BOSTON - As the Bruins look to finish off the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night in Game 5, they may have their best player back in the lineup.
A late scratch for Game 4 with an upper-body injury, Patrice Bergeron is "looking good" for a return to the lineup after participating fully in the team's pregame skate.

"He looked good this morning," said Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy. "He was fine pregame skate, so I anticipate he'll play, but we will make that decision after warm-up, but it is looking good."
Bergeron will meet with the medical staff when he arrives at the rink before game time and re-evaluate his condition. If the center continues to feel well enough to play, he will be back between Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak on Boston's top line.
"Right now, I feel good. Hopefully it stays like that," said Bergeron. "I want to play tonight, so I'll see what happens when I talk to the training staff when I get to the rink."
Boston's top pivot was disappointed to have to sit out a postseason game, especially with an ailment that left his status up in the air until just before puck drop on Thursday night.
"Any game really, but in the playoffs it's definitely a lot more painful and there was a big discussion that we had with the training staff. It's always tough for sure," said Bergeron. "It was a game-time decision. The doctors and training staff thought it was better for that game"

Despite Bergeron's absence, Boston was still able to surge to a 3-1 series lead with a 3-1 victory over the Leafs.
"It speaks a lot to the depth that we have and guys always find a way to step up. It's something that we've been through many times this year," said Bergeron. "I was definitely confident, but at the same time you're always a lot more nervous when you're not playing the game than you are playing."
Riley Nash, Bergeron's fill-in for much of the season, once again did the job, playing just over 19 minutes, while providing a stellar screen in front of Frederik Andersen on Torey Krug's goal just 26 seconds into the game.
"He was great. That being said, I wasn't surprised," said Bergeron. "He's a great player, he's been playing tremendous hockey all year for us. He's playing really well. He did it when I was out with my broken foot this year. I think Brad and David were familiar with him as well. I thought he played a great game."

Closing Things Out

The Bruins have the chance to win a postseason series for the first time in four years tonight as they look to close things out in Game 5 against the Leafs. But the Black & Gold know that securing their fourth win of the series will be far from easy.
"Their season is on the line, but so is ours," said David Krejci. "Every game is really important, the momentum shifts quickly in the playoffs. Just go out there tonight and focus on the next shift…obviously have a good start, but stay in the moment, use the crowd, it's gonna be buzzing tonight, that's for sure.
"It's gonna be exciting, but at the same time, stay calm, stay focused on the task that's in front of you."

Cassidy pointed to Friday night's games, in which Pittsburgh and Nashville - last year's Stanley Cup finalists - could not finish off their series despite entering their respective contests with 3-1 leads.
"If they watched games last night, which we did address, we try to stick to the game in front of us, but two teams that went to the Stanley Cup Final last year couldn't close out," said Cassidy. "So, it's difficult. We talked about how it's hard to win in this league. It's especially hard to win in the playoffs. I think they are aware of it. Hopefully they don't over think it, just go out and play and play the we need to need to play and to have success."

Switching Pairs

After some success over the second half of Game 4, Cassidy is sticking with his altered defense pairs. Zdeno Chara and Charlie McAvoy remain together, while Torey Krug pairs up with Adam McQuaid and Matt Grzelcyk reunites with Kevan Miller - two duos with plenty of experience playing alongside each other.
"Grzelcyk was coming back from a bit of an injury and put him with Kevin, they have had good success," said Cassidy. "And Torey with McQuaid was just a gut instinct move to have a little bit better balance.
"We didn't get scored on. And if that had anything to do with that I don't know, but at the end of the day, that's part of it. Get their attention."

Saturday's Projected Lineup

Brad Marchand - Patrice Bergeron - David Pastrnak
Jake DeBrusk - David Krejci - Rick Nash
Danton Heinen - Riley Nash - David Backes
Tim Schaller - Sean Kuraly - Noel Acciari
Zdeno Chara - Charlie McAvoy
Torey Krug - Adam McQuaid
Matt Grzelcyk - Kevan Miller
Tuukka Rask
Anton Khudobin