Goucher On Toucher and Rich: Don't Expect Any Lineup Tweaks By Bruins For Game 2
BOSTON (CBS) -- For the Boston Bruins, Thursday night was one big missed opportunity.
In Game 1 against the Montreal Canadiens, the Bruins fought back from a 2-0 hole, tied the game again after falling behind 3-2, and then squandered a couple of chances over the two overtime periods before P.K. Subban ended it with 4:17 to go in the second frame of extra hockey.
"It was a missed opportunity for the Bruins," 98.5 The Sports Hub's Bruins play-by-play man Dave Goucher told Toucher & Rich on Friday. "You look at the chances they had, they took 98 shots towards the net. To score three goals, but all the chances they missed; 17 missed the net and 30 were blocked."
Goucher gave Montreal netminder Cary Price a lot of credit for his 48 saves, but sees all those opportunties as a positive for the Bruins.
"It's a positive just because, Carey Price is a real good goaltender, but I don't know if he can do that every night," he said. "He stole the game for Montreal and it's a frustrating one for the Bruins; it was a missed opportunity for them."
Goucher expects to see the Bruins do a much better job at finishing their chances and a much more disciplined squad in Game 2 on Saturday afternoon.
"Some of that is just taking better care of the puck. They talk about puck management, something they're big on. Two of the goals that Montreal scored were results of turnovers on the Bruins side of it," said Goucher. "It's a frustrating game for the Bruins because they did so many good things.
"They are big on accountability to themselves. They'll go in this morning and look at video, and say 'these are chances we have to finish,'" said Goucher. "I thought the Krejci line had their best game of the playoffs. They were a threat most times they were on the ice, so you have to hope they can take a little bit better care of the puck and finish those chances."
It wasn't a very fun game for young defenseman Matt Bartkowski, who was whistled for a pair of penalties that the Canadiens would take advantage of. He was in the box when Subban ended it in the second overtime, but Goucher doesn't think head coach Claude Julien will turn to veteran blue-liner Andrej Meszaros in Game 2.
"I don't know if he does that right now. Unfortunately for Bartowski, he had a rough game last night. The two power play goals the Canadiens scored were results of penalties he took. But I don't know if Claude tweaks it just yet. That defense corp did a lot of good things, and I don't know if Meszaros is the answer back there – I don't think it is.
"I don't think they'll make any tweaks," said Goucher. "I thought the Bruins deserved to win the game with all the chances they had, they just didn't finish them."
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