Halak shines bright with shutout
BUFFALO — Jaroslav Halak may not have had to steal a win last night for the Bruins, but nailing down a shutout in the NHL is always rewarding.
And Halak did it in his first start for the B’s to boot.
After stepping into the shooting gallery in Washington on Wednesday night, Halak was the beneficiary of a much better defensive effort stopping 32 shots in the B’s 4-0 victory over the Sabres last night.
“He was solid,” said coach Bruce Cassidy. “I don’t think we left him out to dry like we did to Tuukka (Rask) and Jaro in the second (period) of the game (Wednesday) night. That was part of the game plan, part of the talk this morning. That’s just not our identity. Teams are going to get chances but we were way too loose the other night in our coverage and our rush defense. That was addressed.
“And when he needed to be solid, he was. I thought he tracked pucks really well. We gave up some outside stuff and he was able to track those and get them out of harm’s way.”
Halak’s best stop came in the first period when he stoned Evan Rodrigues from the top of the crease. Then in the third, he was a calming influence, first when the B’s had trouble making plays out of their end and second when the Sabres pulled the goalie for 4:51 before Patrice Bergeron put the game to bed with an empty-netter.
“It feels great,” said Halak. “It would be nice if we only got the win, but it makes it more special that I had a shutout, but I think it was a great team effort. We all knew that (Wednesday) night was just a bad effort all round and we needed to be better. Tonight we came out and played really well from the top of the puck.”
Cassidy wasn’t ready to name his starter for Monday’s home opener, but was leaning heavily toward sticking with the original plan of playing Rask.
Play better defense
Cassidy’s biggest area of focus going into last night?
“Defending,” said Cassidy after the B’s gave up seven in Washington. “That has started for us in the offensive zone. We haven’t been strong enough on pucks, so we lose some battles and turnover some pucks, our third forward is thinking offense and they’re coming back at us. The odd-man rushes were probably the most we had in my tenure here. Slot coverage, we got away from that, losing battles off the wall. Some it is poor positioning and some of that is on us as a staff to make sure that gets straightened out.
“We need to be harder on our battles, and not allow them easy access to the middle of the ice. That’s where we’d like to start, cut down on the high quality chances and then see where that leads us.”
Cassidy made some personnel adjustments with his forwards lines. He scratched Chris Wagner
and inserted Anders Bjork
then juggled his bottom three lines. Ryan Donato
was moved up as David Krejci’s right wing, Sean Kuraly centered Danton Heinen and Bjork, and David Backes was dropped to fourth-line right wing with center Noel Acciari and Joakim Nordstrom.
Bjork played just 11:34, but had some good jump and was more able to handle the physicality with another summer of training.
Another spectacle
In the B’s first game, they watched the Stanley Cup champions Capitals unfurl their banner. Last night, they were the first team to play against the league’s No. 1 overall pick last June, defenseman Rasmus Dahlin. Cassidy got a sneak peek at Dahlin at the Prospects Challenge in September.
“I saw him here at the rookie camp,” said Cassidy. “Obviously a guy that activates well. Good first step that can separate in a hurry. I thought he delivered good, crisp, hard passes for a young guy. So we’re going to have to take good angles at him and get in front of him and not let him beat us up the ice. It happened a lot in (Washington), so our mindset right now — no matter who we’re playing against — is we need to be better at that.”
Dahlin played 22:37 and was a minus-1 . . . .
The B’s had a scary moment when Charlie McAvoy took a Nathan Bealieau shot off his lower leg late in the second period. He skated off and had to be helped down the runway.
McAvoy did return for the third period.