Taylor Hall made the long drive from Buffalo to Boston on Monday in order to join his new team and hopefully take down his old one. Though at first Hall had trouble finding his game, he improved as the night went on and showed flashes of just what he could do to help spark the Bruins offense in the final stretch of the season.
Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy addressed what he thought Hall added to the team in his first game dawning a No. 71 Bruins uniform.
“Well he certainly creates in space, I thought he did a good job off the rush, finding the open guy,” Cassidy said. “Overtime obviously he looked dangerous. Had a nice backcheck as well, so good speed.”
Against his former team, the Buffalo Sabres, Hall registered three shots on goal and was a plus-1 on the night. Hall almost added his first point with Boston on Craig Smith’s go-ahead goal, but it ended up being ruled an unassisted goal because Smith drove the puck in off of a turnover after Hall gave up the puck.
Hall saw time on the Bruins’ second power-play unit alongside Jake DeBrusk, David Krejci, Craig Smith and Charlie McAvoy. However, with only one Boston power play, it was hard to get a feel for what opportunities he could create on the man advantage.
General manager Don Sweeney and the Bruins are hoping that with the right fit, they can get Hall back to looking something like he did in the 2017-18 season, when he had 93 points off of 39 goals and 54 assists and was awarded the Hart Memorial Trophy for the most valuable player in the NHL.
With the Sabres, Hall produced just 19 points off of two goals and 17 assists, making him more of a setup guy than a dangerous goal-scorer. His two goals this year are well under par from the numbers he put up in the first nine seasons of his career in Edmonton and New Jersey.
Cassidy thinks he has found the right fit for Hall on the left wing of the second line alongside Krejci and Smith. Ahead of the game, there was some question as to whether or not right winger David Pastrnak would stay on the second line on a combination with Hall and Krejci, but Cassidy indicated he will continue to roll with a first line of Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak and a second line of Hall, Krejci and Smith.
“This is our lineup now,” Cassidy said, “and those guys on the right are probably interchangeable to a certain extent, but again we'd like to drill down on chemistry this time of year.
“Like to keep Smith with Krejci and Hall and see where it goes. I mean they were on the ice for basically two goals tonight.”
As for how Cassidy will structure his team to give Hall and the Bruins the best chance at success going forward, he detailed the lines he wants to stick with for now:
“Pasta, Bergy and March have been an elite line in this league for a long time. I'd like to see them kind of recapture that. I think it's been hit or miss this year at times, for whatever reason,” he said. “I thought Coyle and DeBrusk were excellent and Ritchie’s going to complement.
“And then hopefully the other two lines just because their pedigree get their goals, and all of a sudden we become a little more dangerous of a hockey club if you've got three lines clicking.”
Hall was added to the Bruins to provide additional depth of scoring to their roster. Though he seemed to be learning and improving in his first night with Boston, the Bruins need him to reach the next level of his game quickly as the NHL regular season reaches the final stretch.
The next series for Hall with the Bruins will be the real test as they play a home series with back-to-back games against the Islanders on Thursday and Friday. The team will see if their three trade deadline acquisitions will be able to turn the table against the Islanders, a team that they have an 0-3-2 record against this season.