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Bruins mix up defensive pairings; Ullmark to start Game 2 |
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The pairing of Matt Grzelcyk and Brandon Carlo struggled in Game 1, on the ice for a pair of Hurricanes goals.
Their combined effort in Game 1 was enough to force head coach Bruce Cassidy to tinker with his top two defensive pairings for Game 2.
Grzelcyk will jump up to the top pairing alongside Charlie McAvoy while Hampus Lindholm moves down to the left of Carlo.
“I just thought [Grzelcyk] and Carlo had a bit of a challenging night, and we talked about using Lindholm with Carlo as well,” Cassidy said. “Gryz has played a lot of hockey with McAvoy, they’re a good pair, so no concerns there for me.”
A pairing of Grzelcyk and McAvoy is nothing new, the two sharing the ice together for 418:28 of five-on-five ice time this season alone.
In that span of five-on-five ice time, the Bruins have a 30-10 advantage in goals.
The bigger concern is once again with the Bruins’ second pairing.
Lindholm and Carlo together as a pairing provides a small sample size, 20:25 of five-on-five ice time to be exact.
In that 20:25 of ice time, Bruins’ opponents have the advantage in:
Shots: 17-6
Goals: 2-0
Scoring Chances: 11-5
“Obviously we haven’t had many games or shifts together. But from watching him along the bench and just over the past couple of years, he’s a guy that I have a lot of respect for in his game,” Carlo said.
“I think the biggest thing for us will be communication and just using our big bodies and our long sticks to keep things to the outside and go from there. But he’s a great player, and those kind of players most of the time are fun to play with. He’ll make the game easier in some regards, and I hope to do the same for him.”
While the Bruins will start Game 2 with two new defensive pairings, Cassidy wouldn’t rule out a Lindholm and McAvoy reunion if certain situations arise.
“Maybe following a timeout, you can still use Lindholm and McAvoy if it’s an offensive draw or a key defensive draw and you need a breakout, etc,” Cassidy said. “So that’s the reasoning, and it’s a little different look for the matchups as well.”
The change on the back end will be the lone change for Game 2. After some questions about who would get the nod between the pipes in Game 2, Cassidy revealed the net would be Ullmark’s again.
“He had a great run coming into the playoffs and we’re not going to judge him on one game,” Cassidy said. “It was his first playoff game, there’s a bunch of things that go into that.”
Although Ullmark wasn’t particularly sharp at times in Game 1, going back to him for Game 2 is the right call.
Hopefully both the Bruins and Ullmark are better Wednesday night.
Boston Bruins Blogger • 
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