B's Cruise to Victory on Long Island

UNIONDALE, N.Y.- Bruce Cassidy is a hockey coach. It's quite normal for his stress level to jump up and down more frantically than a pack of eight-year-olds on a trampoline.
But on Tuesday night, his nerves remained flat-lined.
His team's 60-minute lockdown on Long Island made sure of that.

The Bruins put forth, perhaps, their most dominating all-around effort of the season, allowing just 13 shots on goal, while cruising to a 5-0 victory over the New York Islanders at Nassau Coliseum to kick off their four-game road trip.
"Probably in terms of possession and the worry meter for the coach," Cassidy said when asked if it was the Bruins' best effort of the season. "Usually you see what's happening before maybe the bad comes. But we never really got away from it."

Sean Kuraly paced Boston's offensive charge with two goals, marking his first multi-goal output of the season. His first came just 1:12 into the contest and set the tone for the Black & Gold, who opened up a 6-point cushion on the Toronto Maple Leafs for second place in the Atlantic Division.
"He has to be one of the lead sled dogs, in terms of playing [north-style] hockey…he's definitely that guy," Cassidy said of Kuraly. "It's one of the reasons we went to that [fourth] line a lot to start games. If you can forecheck a team early and put them on their heels, you never know.
"That sometimes will get them thinking right away, 'Wow, it's gonna be one of those nights.' And if the next line follows it then off you go. So yes, he is a tempo setter for us."
The Bruins also got a goal from fellow bottom-sixer Noel Acciari at the 2:52 mark of the second period, before Kuraly - centering Danton Heinen and Chris Wagner on Boston's third line - struck again for his second of the night off a slick feed from Heinen with 3:43 remaining in the middle frame.
"All those issues about secondary scoring we addressed about a month ago seem to have sorted themselves out a little bit," said Cassidy.
"You never know when they're gonna go in," added Kuraly, who hadn't scored since Jan. 17. "I don't have a ton of goals. When they go in, you're always maybe a little surprised. It was a pleasant surprise, that's for sure."

Boston picked up some insurance in the third on tallies from Patrice Bergeron (his 28th of the season) and Jake DeBrusk (his 23rd), who scored off a breakaway after corralling a loose puck in the neutral zone upon his exit from the penalty box. The Bruins finished the night with a 39-13 shot advantage.
"For a full 60, that's up there with one of the best 60s that we've played this year," said Kuraly. "I think we just tried to stick to our game and keep playing it. I think our leadership, no matter what the score was tonight, wanted us to keep playing hard.
"I don't think it really mattered what the score ended up being. We were just gonna play our game and get pucks behind them."
The effort resulted in some high praise from Tuukka Rask, who picked up his fourth shutout of the season on a night when his workload was far lighter than usual.
"Thirteen shots…I don't know if they had five scoring chances. Great game, I'm impressed," said Rask. "We played good from start to finish. You strip everything away from the other team, don't give them time and space, that was the result."

Fresh Pasta

David Pastrnak returned to the lineup after missing the last 16 games with a thumb injury and had plenty of jump in his step. The winger, who is still tied with Brad Marchand for the team lead in goals with 31, appeared to be a tad off in his timing with the puck, but still landed three shots on goal with a plus-1 rating in just over 14 minutes of ice time.
"Rust. Good legs, puck was finding him," said Cassidy. "Looked like he was a half a second off in his decisions a little bit, a little off net with his shots. But I like that we won the game, we didn't have to press him into any more minutes than necessary. Was able to find his game without a lot of pressure on him…worked out well for everybody."
Pastrnak, who took his normal place as the B's top-line right wing, reported no ill effects following the game.
"Felt pretty good, obviously physically and pain-wise was actually really good," he said. "Obviously the timing a little bit. We got a lot of chances as a line, just didn't capitalize on chances I would usually. But great thing we didn't need to today. That was great."

A Sign of Respect

Zdeno Chara turned 42 on Monday, but there still may be no better - or more feared - fighter in the National Hockey League. That was evident on Tuesday night, when the B's captain dropped 'em with Islanders tough guy Matt Martin off the second period's opening faceoff.
Chara landed a heavy right early in the bout, knocking Martin to the ice, before eventually taking down the Islanders forward again to end the scrap. Following the game, Chara offered his respect for the 6-foot-3, 220-pound Martin, calling him "tough as nails."
"He's obviously been in the league for a long time," Chara said after his third fight of the season.. "He's doing his job for his team. Great job by him. He takes his job very seriously. He's one of those guys that I respect highly.
"It's not an easy job. He's putting his name out there and he's doing whatever he can to help his team tonight, so good for him. One of those guys that's very tough, very respected. I just wanted to give him that opportunity"