Need to Know: Bruins vs Maple Leafs

BOSTON - On Saturday night, the Bruins will line up opposite the Toronto Maple Leafs for the first time since the two teams squared off in Game 7 of the first round of the 2018 NHL playoffs. Coming off an 8-5 loss to the Vancouver Canucks, the Bruins focus will be on tightening things up on the defensive end.
"I think it's just the assertiveness around the puck, especially defensively," said Bruins forward Patrice Bergeron when asked what was missing against Vancouver. "I've said that a lot, even last night. I think that's where we have to pick it up a little bit and take care of the puck a lot better and make sure then we can go and think about offense. On the puck, being more on our toes, good things happen. If you're hesitating, it gives the other team time. That's what we saw last night."

Prior to allowing eight goals against the Canucks, the Bruins had only allowed a combined seven goals through their first six games this season at TD Garden, including the recent 2-1 overtime victory over the Dallas Stars.
"I think that we've got to realize we don't want to be know for being a one-and-done type of team," said captain Zdeno Chara. "We had a great performance against Dallas, everybody felt pretty good about our game. But just like we have to move on from game's like [Thursday] night, we have to move on from games like we had Monday against Dallas. You've got to stay even-keel and always looking forward to the next game. You have to bring your best and not rely on previous performances."

Check The Tape

Prior to practice on Friday, the team met for their usual video session and identified areas of improvement.
"I think that we watched a few things and realized that we can do a lot of things right if we work hard and play in our structure," said Chara. "We can obviously get quickly out of the structure if we don't do those little details right. I think it was pretty clear if we stick and play our way, shift after shift we can be pretty effective. But if we drift away and start playing different ways then the game gets away from us."
The mentality among the players is to put the poor performance in the past.
"I think the challenge is to bounce back from last night's game," said Bergeron. "That's the main focus right now is to be a lot better. We did some video today and that was much needed, you can see it's right there in front of you. You've got to respond and be better tomorrow."

Halak To Start

With Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask taking a leave of absence to deal with a personal matter, Jaroslav Halak will likely get both starts this weekend.
"He definitely starts tomorrow," said Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy. "It looks like he'll probably go back in Sunday, but generally I'll give you that on Saturday after the game probably. He's definitely going tomorrow."

Third Line Tinkering

Newly recalled Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson will see immediate action on the Bruins third line against the Leafs.
"He'll play with Danton on the left wing," said Cassidy. "Right wing, right now Backes was there today, could be a different right winger. I guess to expand on [Forsbacka Karlsson], we liked his training camp. We didn't feel he was ready, or he would have started here. But made some plays, he didn't get scored on. We wanted to work on certain things. We addressed, up the compete level, in terms of winning pucks.
"I thought he had a decent start, had a personal matter to take care of back home. He got back, got his feet under him and we made a decision to give it a go here. We'll see how it plays out for him. Hopefully he's up to the challenge."

Opposing Views

The Leafs enter the weekend coming off a strong two games in which they topped the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-0, and the Vegas Golden Knights, 3-1. Toronto will do battle with the New Jersey Devils on Friday before coming to Boston for Saturday's contest.
With star Auston Mathews sidelined with a shoulder injury, the Maple Leafs have relied on Mitch Marner and offseason signing John Tavares. Marner leads the team with 14 assists and 19 points, while Tavares is second on the team in goals (8) behind only the injured Mathews.
"They already had a very good attack and adding [Tavares] obviously adds to the whole challenge," Bergeron said of facing this year's Maple Leafs. "It's the same approach as we had last year against them, having all lines doing their job against the line they're up against. That's usually how good things happen."
The Leafs hold a slight advantage in the Atlantic Division, with 20 points compared to the B's 18.

Projected Lineup

Marchand - Bergeron - Pastrnak
DeBrusk - Krejci - Nordstrom
Heinen - JFK - Backes/Bjork
Acciari - Kuraly - Wagner
Chara - Carlo
Krug - Moore
Grzelcyk - Kampfer
Halak