Bruce Cassidy Offers Great Perspective On What Bruins' Win Over Lightning Means
BOSTON (CBS) -- The Bruins had themselves a test on Thursday night, hosting the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion -- and potential first-round playoff opponent -- Tampa Bay Lightning. Within that test, they faced several more tests, falling behind 1-0 in the second period and falling behind 2-1 early in the third.
But the Bruins passed both tests, getting a hat trick out of David Pastrnak en route to a 3-2 victory. And they did it without Patrice Bergeron, who missed his fourth straight game as he recovers from an elbow infection.
A win like that is obviously a big one, and it can provide a team with a healthy dose of confidence. Head coach Bruce Cassidy admitted as much after the win, but also cautioned against anyone -- either inside or outside the locker room -- from thinking too far ahead based on the results of one game in March.
"It's going to give us confidence. On the flip side, this is the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions. And so we're excited we won and played well, but we're not getting ahead of ourselves either here. We know who Tampa Bay is," Cassidy said. "They know who they are. And the road runs through them eventually."
Thursday's win did vault the Bruins ahead of the Lightning in the standings, dropping Tampa Bay into the top wild card spot by moving the Bruins up into third place in the Atlantic Division. The Bruins have the same number of standings points as the second-place Maple Leafs, but Toronto has played one fewer game. The Lightning are just a point behind Boston, likewise with one fewer game played as well.
Clearly, there's a lot that can shake out between now and the postseason. Still, there's a strong possibility that the Bruins get the back-to-back defending champs in the first round.
"This is good. It's good for the guys in the room to know that if we play a certain way then we have a chance to beat them and can outplay them in certain areas," Cassidy said. "So that's the positive of that, and you should be confident when you beat a really good team. I'm not taking that away from our group, but I'm not gonna -- I'll never get down on Tampa. They're too good a hockey club, they've accomplished too much. But good for us. Positives for us."
The Bruins are now 2-0-1 vs. the Lightning this year, with one more meeting meeting left in Tampa in early April.
