After the Bruins' pregame skate at Warrior Ice Arena, the talk centered about the possibility of getting into the postseason, but Cassidy and the players tried to stay grounded.
"It's about playing the right way and not getting too far ahead of ourselves," said Cassidy. "We want to have a good first period, that's our focus."
"We've done a good job with that, getting out with good energy, on time, put them on their heels - and then you go from there and make the necessary adjustments if it doesn't go your way, or keep pushing and extending the lead if you happen to get it. So I think that's our sole mindset, without getting too ahead of ourselves."
Until the final buzzer sounds, and the Black & Gold have themselves two points in regulation, they'll deflect any playoffs talk.
"At the end of the night, if it goes our way, then we'll address that," said Cassidy.
While the focus in on the first period, the Bruins are no doubt using the clinching scenario as motivation.
"It is huge motivation," said Captain Zdeno Chara. "I think we all know that's what every team's goal is before the season starts, to be in the playoffs, and then anything can happen and we've seen it in the past. Same for us - for some teams, [clinching] obviously comes earlier, but [for] other teams, it might come later. Most importantly, we control it."
"There's a lot more meaning to it, when you're playing for something like the playoffs," said Chara. "Everybody wants to be part of it - everybody wants to be playing for the chance to win the ultimate trophy, so we know what's at stake."
"Right now, we just need to focus on winning the game and continuing to play our game," said Chara.
Every game during the past month has felt like a must-win for the Bruins, so they have been used to that mindset.
"We've been going through this for a while now, where every game has been important," said Torey Krug. "We've just got to make sure we can pull through this one. It's a big one for us - we clamp down, we dig in, we can use a lot of cliches, but we've just got to come tonight and do the work and get the job done."
