After 21 minutes of Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final on Monday the Bruins trailed the St. Louis Blues 2-0 because of even-strength goals by Brayden Schenn and Vladimir Tarasenko.
The Bruins on the ice for both goals against were Zdeno Chara and Charlie McAvoy on defense; Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak up front.
So coach Bruce Cassidy made a switch, matching up his fourth line of Joakim Nordstrom, Sean Kuraly and Noel Acciari against the line of Schenn, Tarasenko and Jaden Schwartz. The moved worked, as the Blues didn't score again.
Heading into Game 2 of the best-of-7 series on Wednesday, Cassidy said he could start the game with either matchup, and then change things up again if he needs to.
"We'll probably go back to it at some point. Whether we start that way or not, it's what we've typically done all year, Bergy's going to get a hard matchup," Cassidy said at TD Garden on Wednesday morning. "What I mean by hard, not hard all game, but who we feel the other team is the biggest threat or one of their biggest threats. I thought they weren't bad, I just thought they turned a couple of pucks over and against that line, no disrespect to the other ones, it's like Bergy's line. When teams don't manage the puck against them, they're going to make you pay. They made us pay, so we just went a different direction, in terms of [Sean] Kuraly tends to play a straight-line game, a little more physical, so we thought that might be a better fit.
"So, that will be the plan tonight. I imagine Bergy will go back. I didn't think they were that bad. As the game wore on, they got some looks, had a real good chance right out of the gate on a faceoff play. Like I said, we just didn't manage some pucks and allowed them some point-blank chances, and that's dangerous against that line."
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