Despite an 0-3 record during round-robin play, the Bruins do not seem overly concerned with the state of their game. They know that the intensity will pick up tenfold on Tuesday night as the postseason gets underway and they seem confident that their engagement level will rise with it.
"We're in a position where what we've gone through the last four games, it doesn't really mean anything," said Brad Marchand. "We're not gonna look at it and base the next series off of what's happened. Those are preseason games, let's call it what it is. They're exhibition games for the playoffs. We weren't in the same position as other teams. It's hard to have the same mentality as a playoff series.
"We're not gonna base our performance against Carolina off of that. We're gonna go and do what we have to do, we're all gonna be dedicated and compete. That's what our team does - we compete and we work. We try to just play our game."
While the quick turnaround presents a challenge for the Black & Gold, Cassidy was pleased with his team's energy during Monday's practice in Toronto and wondered if getting right back to it could turn out to be exactly what his team needs.
"The schedule is what it is," said Cassidy. "Of course, I would have liked another day, even just for rest after a Sunday game. Maybe for us in this case it's good to get back at it right away. We have not been involved in the sort of sudden death playoff atmosphere. We've been involved in good hard hockey games, but they just re-seeded us."
Bruins captain Zdeno Chara, who is set to kick off his 15th career postseason, echoed his coach's sentiments.
"I thought we've been making some progress, positive progress going forward with our game," said Chara. "I thought we didn't get the results that we wanted, especially the last two games. But I thought we were improving our game.
"The energy is very important for our team to be positive and having good, upbeat practices with a lot of good skating drills. That's how it was today. We know what we're facing right now.
"Everything that happened until this point is behind us. We're looking forward."
