One of head coach Joel Quenneville’s goals for this game was to see how his team could play with a lead and cited Gauthier’s goal as huge his group to see how they’d respond.
“The third goal, I thought, was a big goal for us,” Quenneville said. “Scoring late and then they had a push there in the last couple minutes of the second. A couple of saves and a couple of fortunate bounces, but I liked the third period when we had a lead. Didn’t get tested all year. We didn’t know how we were going to respond to the lead. I thought we were pretty sound after that.”
As for tonight, Quenneville said Petr Mrázek will get the start in the net for Anaheim.
“It’s been a while since he played and we want to get him in on this trip,” he said. “He got to watch a little bit, but at the same time I’m sure he can’t wait to get back in the net, so it’ll be a good opportunity for him.”
After winning their first three games, the Bruins are currently on a five-game losing streak. Most recently, they fell to Florida after Carter Verhaeghe scored with 26 seconds left in the third for the Panthers.
Pavel Zacha’s multi-point game on Tuesday got him to eight points on the year, while longtime Bruin David Pastrnak paces the team with 10 points (four goals, six assists).
Despite their recent losses, Quenneville and Ducks players know the Bruins are a team they can’t take lightly.
“We don’t really know what they are yet,” said Alex Killorn. “They’ve got some big guys on the back end. We’re going to have our hands full.”
“I feel we’re playing a very dangerous opponent tonight,” Quenneville added. “We expect them to be pretty competitive tonight.”