Need to Know: Bruins at Sabres

BUFFALO - There was not one thing the Bruins could point to when trying to explain their disastrous season-opening loss to the Capitals. Nothing was good enough.
"Everything," David Pastrnak said when asked about what the team needs to improve. "It wasn't us and we know that. Good we have another game right away today. We're going to be ready and there's a lot to improve and we know we need to get better."

"Bad, bad game," added David Krejci. "Time to move on, not really enough time to get into it too much. We've got Buffalo tonight…any time you have a bad game, you want to get right back at it and have a good one. We know that it was a bad game for everyone, it was a wake-up call, and we're here right now and we want to get it back."

Unlike his players, Cassidy would have preferred a day of practice to iron out some of his team's shortcomings. But a back-to-back to open up the season provides the Bruins an opportunity to get right back at it on Thursday night against the Sabres at KeyBank Center.
"I'd rather have a day off and work on some things. But here we are, so we need to be ready to go," said Cassidy. "We take a lot from [last night]. We were not very good in any area, so it needs to be addressed. We played a good hockey club last night. Obviously they were on their game, that has something to do with it.
"But I don't think there's any bad teams in this league. We've got to get our game up to speed. We talked about that going into the game. We weren't where we thought we needed to be and it showed."
After surrendering seven goals in the shutout loss to the Capitals - the team's worst Opening Night defeat in history - Cassidy said the improvements must start with a vastly enhanced defensive effort.
"That starts, has started for us a lot, in the offensive zone," said Cassidy. "We haven't been strong enough on pucks, so we lose some battles and turn pucks over. Our third forward's thinking offense and they're coming back at us. Odd-man rushes were probably the most we've had in my tenure here. Slot coverage, we got away from that by losing battles off the wall.
"Some of it is poor positioning and that's on us as a staff to make sure that gets straightened out. But we need to be harder on our battles and not allow them easy access to the ice. That's where we'd like to start, cut down on the high quality chances and see where that leads us."

Lineup Tweaks

Cassidy confirmed that he will stick with his original plan of starting Jaro Halak between the pipes. The backup netminder relieved Tuukka Rask during Wednesday's opener in Washington and stopped 16 of the 18 shots he faced.
The only other lineup change could come up front, though Cassidy said that the staff was still discussing what switch that might make.

Opposing View

The Bruins will get their first look at 18-year-old sensation Rasmus Dahlin, the dynamic blue liner that the Sabres selected with the first overall pick in last June's NHL Draft. The Sweden native is expected to be paired with Jake McCabe.
"I saw him up here at the rookie camp," said Cassidy. "Obviously a guy that activates well, good first step that can separate in a hurry. Thought he delivered good, hard, crisp passes for a young guy. We're going to have to take good angles on him and get in front of him and not let him beat us up ice.
"It happened a lot [Wednesday in Washington], so our mindset right now - no matter who we're playing against - is we need to be better at that. But he'll test us and so will [Rasmus Ristolainen] in that regard. We've got to make sure we're ready for it."
- The Sabres will have some new talent up front, courtesy of their blockbuster trade with St. Louis over the summer. Gone is center Ryan O'Reilly, who was shipped to the Blues in exchange for forwards Tage Thompson, Vladimir Sobotka, Patrick Berglund, and a first-round pick. Wingers Conor Sheary (Pittsburgh) and Jeff Skinner (Carolina) were also acquired during the offseason. - According to the Sabres' Twitter account, Carter Hutton will start in goal. - Former Boston University standout Jack Eichel was named the Sabres' captain on Tuesday, with Kyle Okposo and Zach Bogosian selected as the team's alternates.