Stretching Them Thin

TORONTO - Since he took over last February, Bruce Cassidy has encouraged his defensemen to get involved offensively, whether it be with a pinch in the attacking end or joining the rush through the neutral zone.
The Bruins have heeded that mantra on more than one occasion during the first three games of their opening-round series with the Toronto Maple Leafs. In Game 2, Kevan Miller trickled down into the corner and banked one in off of Leafs netminder Frederick Andersen, while Zdeno Chara crept in from the point in Game 3 and picked the top corner over Andersen's right shoulder.

There is, however, a risk-reward factor when electing for a more aggressive approach from the defense corps.
"Here's the trade-off," Cassidy explained during the team's off day in Toronto. "You have defensemen involved offensively and they're active in the O-zone - I'll go back to Game 2. Kevan Miller is active and we score a goal off of it. It's a bit of a lucky goal off their foot.
"But he's down being part of the offense. If that doesn't bounce in, they get position, they recover a loose puck retrieval in their own end - off their wingers go."
And off the Leafs wingers did go during their Game 3 victory on Monday night.
After stymying Toronto's speed and skill for the majority of the first two games in Boston, the Bruins were burned through the neutral zone on several occasions in Game 3, with the Maple Leafs taking advantage of the Black & Gold's aggressiveness and showing off their knack of getting free behind the defensemen.
Their ability to stretch the defense was on full display during Toronto's second goal of the night, which came just 43 seconds after Adam McQuaid had tied the game, 1-1, at 3:06 of the second period. With the Bruins' top line low in the Maple Leafs' end, Morgan Rielly corralled a loose puck behind the net and banked it off the wall to Mitch Marner, who was wide open in the neutral zone after managing to sneak behind Kevan Miller and Torey Krug.
Marner led the rush up ice and broke in on a 2-on-1 with Patrick Marleau, who took a feed from Marner and tapped it past Tuukka Rask to put the Maple Leafs back in front.
"Just better awareness," said Krug. "Things like that are going to happen. If we're just aware of who's behind us…it's part of their game, they like to spring guys and get them going and let those young, talented guys do the work. He was able to put it in the back of the net. We just have to have better awareness."

With the likes of Marner, William Nylander, Zach Hyman, Auston Matthews, and Kasperi Kapanen - he broke free through the neutral zone for a breakaway attempt that Rask denied with a toe save in the first period - boasting plenty of speed to burn, the Bruins' blue liners know they have to be aware of where all five players are on the ice at all times.
"It's kind of text book for these guys. It's their style, they're very good at it," said Charlie McAvoy. "They get results when they do it and they all buy into that system, their D especially watching that. Their D knows the vicinity of where to throw a puck and whether to high chip it, or sometimes it's a tape-to-tape pass.
"But they know to just get it up in a hurry because they have guys going with speed and they have numbers, usually that low support from a center who's flying up the ice and the two wings stretching.
"As we keep going here, we're continuing to get familiar with it, so we need to really bear down and limit those chances and end those rushes as fast as they can."
Krug does not believe the Bruins have to change their tactics at the offensive blue line, but said that when a defenseman does decide to pinch it's important that he does so knowing he has someone rotating up to cover for him.
"I try to play the same way every single time, same mentality, aggressive," said Boston's leading scorer among defensemen during the regular season. "If we have guys reloading, it allows our defense to pinch and keep pucks alive. At times last night, specifically myself, you pinch and then all of a sudden you don't have a guy reloading and they're off on a 2-on-1 and it's in the back of our net.
"Sometimes it makes you second-guess yourself, but you've just got to make sure that we're doing it together. One guy goes, we all go. We have the ability to continue to do that."
It is, no doubt, a balancing act. While they must pick their spots, the Bruins back end know there is opportunity for them to take advantage offensively, having already potted three goals - both tallies in Game 3 - in the series.
"There are opportunities that represent themselves," said McAvoy. "Last night was a great point shot, a seeing-eye shot from [Adam McQuaid] and then Zee hops in and makes a phenomenal shot - I don't know what he was looking for there. What a shot. That's just a really skilled play.
"We're going to continue to try to exploit those when we have, up top, mismatches. Say their wingers get too low and we have more space up top, try and take advantage of those plays whenever we can, taking care of our own zone first. But whenever we can contribute offensively we try to do so."

On the flip side, there are also risks for Toronto when deciding to fly the zone. If Rielly's stretch pass did not connect with Marner, the Bruins would have had numbers coming back the other way.
"We've had times where our forwards, good F3s [on the backcheck], they had a couple opportunities," said McAvoy. "Danton [Heinen] hit the post or might have been a blocker save. They fly all the time, so if that defenseman turns it over…we have opportunities for 3-on-3s or potential 4-on-3s if the D can hop up there and beat those two forwards who might not even be looking at the puck.
"That's something that we'll continue to watch and exploit when we can. But our first job as defensemen is to keep that guy in front of you. If that means backing out of the zone and sacrificing offense to make sure you're safeguarding your own zone, that's something we have to do."
Three games into this first-round matchup, the Bruins are facing their first bit of adversity. And they're not interested in letting it continue - by any stretch.
"You want to limit their chances, their opportunities as much as you can," said McAvoy. "But you've got to realize that they're special, they're gifted hockey players. They're gonna get chances, they are. It's really just about limiting them and trying to keep them out of those danger areas.
"We've been able to do that. But they were going to break through at some point. Fine, we get that game out of the way and get refocused and get ready for Game 4."