"Beautiful day, isn't it?" Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy noted ahead of Game 3. "Finally playoff hockey weather in Boston."
It's 85 degrees -- and if you didn't get the memo -- the Bruins aren't the only team using TD Garden for a postseason run.
According to The Athletic's Joe McDonald, Brad Marchand made it a point after Game 1 in Tampa Bay to say how bad the ice was. You could see that yourself with all the puck bouncing through the first two games.
With the weather, and all the switching from hardwood to ice, there's not much conditional relief up North. The biggest problem with "bad ice" is loss of puck control, ergo turnovers. Aside from the officiating, turnovers from Marchand and David Pastrnak were mostly the reason the Bruins lost Game 2.
How much of an impact does the weather -- and switching from hardwood to ice -- actually have on that?
"For the most part the guys at the Garden they do a great job, they really do," Charlie McAvoy offered. "...still, going back and forth from hardwood to hockey sometimes the ice isn't too great..you'll see it wear down pretty quick like in warm ups and pretty early each period. It doesn't change the way we want to play. Sometimes, the last five minutes or so if it's pretty bad, you're just making safe plays to make sure you don't turn the puck over because of the conditions."
Cassidy said it's a matter of simplification and urgency.
"The adjusting is in understanding that the one-touch plays aren't there," he said. "Pucks are hopping around and you gotta simplify a little, when you got a good, flat puck under your stick that's the time to move it or shoot it."
Could the Bruins try to use the conditions to their advantage?
"The other way (to adapt) is to put other teams in bad spots and force them to move the puck under duress -- that's when it bounces," Cassidy said. "...other than that it's controlling your own environment -- if the ice isn't conducive to making a play, don't make that play."
Erring on the side of caution is a fine line for a team looking for more aggression. The B's only had 24 hits to the Lightning's 42 in Game 2. It won't be anything revolutionary -- as it hasn't been -- but Cassidy is swapping in Tommy Wingels for Tim Schaller to bring some urgency to Game 3.
"He's got experience, he provides some physicality -- I think we're a little short on that," Cassidy said. "It's a small swap, they both kill penalties. Just gotta make sure we aren't getting comfortable and we still have the urgency out there. I think we lack some of that. We need to bring it tonight. Wingy (Wingels) can help us with that."
Wingels had nine hits in the three games he played Round 1. Schaller had one hit in his last four games. As Cassidy said, it's a small swap to provide physicality -- not much to read into with this one.
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