Bruce Cassidy, Bruins Discuss Back-To-Back Situation

The Boston Bruins and Tampa Bay Lightning played a tightly contested Game 2 on Tuesday night. The Lightning scored 4:30 into overtime to win the game 4-3 and even the series 1-1. Less than 24 hours after Game 2 concluded, Game 3 will faceoff. The Bruins and Lightning are right back at it tonight. That could be a good thing for Bruce Cassidy and his team.

“Sometimes it’s good to get right back at it when you lose a hockey game,” Bruce Cassidy told reporters. “You know, we’ll see tomorrow if that’s good for us, you saw their energy early on, they had good push, usually after a loss you have that. You know they may be riding high and going to build off that because they want to even the series. So that’s a tough one sometimes to answer.”

In terms of fatigue, Bruce Cassidy isn’t exactly worried. He didn’t think his team got overworked in Game 2.

“Minutes wise we were pretty good I thought,” Cassidy continued. “Balanced going into the overtime, obviously only a five minute overtime, so that part was good, I don’t think anybody had to go, no injuries so we didn’t really have to double shift anybody, so that part of our recovery should be OK.”

READY FOR A ‘BATTLE’

Brad Marchand expects a battle in Game 3. The dynamic Bruins winger, who continues to score at a torrid pace, admitted as much on Monday night. He expects the pace to be a challenge against this Lightning team.

“I think the biggest challenge obviously is the pace. They’re fast games out there,” Marchand said. “Slow ice makes it a little tougher. Like you said, that’s a team that competes hard and works very hard. To play that two nights in a row, it’s going to be a battle. Like you said, we all play back-to-backs all the time. No excuses come playoff time. You have to show up and you have to play.

“You have to find a way to win. just have to rely on the whole group tomorrow. Everyone is going to have to have their best games if we want to compete with that team.”