So now you've got one in each pair who can be a one-man breakout as opposed to loading them up," Cassidy explained. "(Lindholm) is excellent on the breakout like Charlie is. This skill is mightily important against a team like the Hurricanes that plays a physical style of hockey and aggressively forechecks. Separating McAvoy and Lindholm also gives the Bruins at least one defenseman capable of executing breakouts at a high level. Bruins notes: Failing to score early cost B's in Game 1 loss to Hurricanes Putting Lindholm with Carlo is a good way to address that. But when the drop off in talent from that top duo to the rest of the pairings is fairly steep, or you need a certain skill on a particular pairing, it's often better to spread out the talent. If the Bruins had more quality defensive depth, then it would make sense to put Lindholm and McAvoy - the team's top two blueliners - on the same pairing. The most impressive stat there is the goals for percentage at 75, meaning the Bruins accounted for 75 percent of all goals scored when the Grzelcyk-McAvoy pairing was on the ice at 5-on-5 during the regular season. Here's where they ranked among all NHL pairings with at least 400 minutes played together at 5-on-5, per Natural Stat Trick. ![]() The Grzelcyk-McAvoy duo was more than a good pair during the regular season. So no concerns for me with that chemistry." Grzelcyk has played a lot of hockey with McAvoy. There's still a little bit of that involved. It's that time of the year, and he looks healthy. "It might up Lindholm's minutes in certain situations. It also allows you in-game to put McAvoy and Lindholm together, maybe after they've sat a shift for Clifton and Forbort, so you can still keep them as a pair. "We talked about using Lindholm with Carlo as well. "I just thought Grzelcyk and Carlo had a bit of a challenging night," Cassidy told reporters. Here's what the defense pairings looked like during Tuesday's practice: Charlie McAvoy and Matt Grzelcyk will be reunited on the top pair, while Hampus Lindholm will slide down to the left side of the second pairing with Brandon Carlo. The most logical solution is just switching up the pairings, and that's what Cassidy will try in Game 2. So, that wouldn't be a good remedy, either. Reilly got exposed by the Islanders' aggressive forecheck in last season's second-round series. He plays a very similar style to Grzelcyk, but he's also less talented. David Krejci among most underappreciated Boston athletes of his era
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