Bruce Cassidy is sticking with Linus Ullmark for Wednesday night’s Game 2 against the Hurricanes. The Bruins coach announced the decision during his press conference after Tuesday’s practice in Raleigh.
Ullmark gave up four goals on 24 shots in Monday’s Game 1 loss, but only one of the goals was really on him -- the fourth, which came on a bad-angle shot from Vincent Trocheck that went off his helmet and in. One goal got tipped right in front of him, one he never saw thanks to a good screen, and one came off a 2-on-1.
Cassidy, while making it clear that he wasn’t putting the loss on Ullmark, said after the game that the Bruins could have used another save or two and suggested that Ullmark could have done a better job fighting through screens. He did not immediately commit to a Game 2 starter after the game, but did so on Tuesday.
“Linus is going back in,” Cassidy said. “He had a great run here coming into the playoffs, and we’re not gonna judge him on one game, his first playoff game. There’s a bunch of different things that go into that, but at the end of the day, he’s going back in, and hopefully he’s a better goaltender. That’s how it works this time of the year, right? It’s a big part of the game, and he’ll get his chance.”
While Cassidy is not making a change in goal yet, he is making one change elsewhere, and it’s on defense. The Bruins will flip Matt Grzelcyk and Hampus Lindholm on their top two pairs, with Grzelcyk joining Charlie McAvoy on the top pair and Lindholm teaming up with Brandon Carlo on the second.
Grzelcyk and Carlo had a tough Game 1 as a pair, especially Grzelcyk. It was Grzelcyk’s mistimed pinch in the third period that led to a 2-on-1 the other way and Carolina’s third goal, which effectively killed any momentum the Bruins had after cutting the lead to 2-1. Grzelcyk finished the game as a minus-3.
“I just thought Grizz and Carlo had a bit of a challenging night,” Cassidy said. “We had talked about using Lindholm with Carlo at times as well. It also allows you, then, in-game to put Lindholm and McAvoy together, maybe after they’ve sat a shift with [Derek] Forbort and [Connor] Clifton going over. Once they’re always together, then they’re together and that’s it.
“It might up Lindy’s minutes a little bit in certain situations. It’s that time of year. He looks healthy. So there’s a little bit of that involved. You can still go back to the other pair. He can play with both. And that’s it. Grizz has played a lot of hockey with McAvoy. They’re a good pair, so no concerns there for me as far as chemistry.”
To Cassidy’s point, Grzelcyk and McAvoy’s numbers together have been excellent for the last few years. This season, out of 102 defense pairings league-wide that played at least 300 minutes together at 5-on-5, Grzelcyk-McAvoy ranked first in goals-for percentage (75.6%) and first in expected goals-for percentage (67.9%). Those numbers have not been quite as lopsided in the playoffs, though, as the Bruins have a 10-9 goals advantage in 280 minutes with them on the ice going back to the 2019 playoffs.
Lindholm and Carlo, meanwhile, played just 22 minutes together in the regular season. Cassidy had initially planned to give them more time together after the team acquired Lindholm at the trade deadline, but Lindholm missing eight games with a leg injury threw a wrench into those plans and he ultimately stayed almost exclusively with McAvoy.
Up front, Cassidy is planning to keep the same lines as Game 1. Here is the Bruins’ expected lineup for Wednesday’s Game 2:
Brad Marchand - Patrice Bergeron - Jake DeBrusk
Taylor Hall - Erik Haula - David Pastrnak
Trent Frederic - Charlie Coyle - Craig Smith
Nick Foligno - Tomas Nosek - Curtis Lazar
Matt Grzelcyk - Charlie McAvoy
Hampus Lindholm - Brandon Carlo
Derek Forbort - Connor Clifton
Linus Ullmark
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