TORONTO — If you thought it was weird to see Boston Bruins goaltender Dan Vladar sign a contract extension in the middle of Sunday’s game, consider what might happen next: He’s been told to prepare like he’ll make his NHL debut against the Tampa Bay Lightning in this second-round series.
Welcome to the Stanley Cup Playoffs, bubble edition.
The Bruins and Lightning will play two sets of back-to-backs if their best-of-seven goes the distance and that’s forced the coaching staffs to consider moves they might not otherwise make.
Boston will go with Jaroslav Halak in goal for Game 2 on Tuesday night but Bruce Cassidy is considering Vladar, a 23-year-old who played well in 25 American Hockey League games this season, for Game 3 on Wednesday.
“Sometimes you’ve got to look at your lineup and say, ‘OK, do we have the luxury of making any changes and how will it affect us? How does it affect the group throwing another guy in there?”’ said Cassidy. “At the end of the day I think it’ll be a decision we probably make Wednesday morning after we sort through the game on Tuesday and see where Jaro’s at physically.
“And have Danny prepared Tuesday night. Just say ‘Hey, you’ve got to prepare like you’re going in the net.”’
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The Bruins viewed their goaltending tandem of Tuukka Rask and Halak as a major strength during the season, but have had Vladar filling the No. 2 role since Rask departed the bubble because of a family situation.
Now they find themselves ready to consider Vladar, who signed a three-year extension over the weekend, because of the accelerated playoff format. Halak is 35 and has only started on back-to-back nights twice in the last two seasons.
Where the Bruins go Wednesday depends heavily on what happens in Game 2.
It’s easier to give a rookie his first NHL start if they’re up 2-0 in the series, for example, and if Tuesday’s game involves a lengthy overtime the decision could be made for them.
“We’ve never really done this in a playoff series before,” observed Lightning head coach Jon Cooper, who seems inclined to stick with 26-year-old Andrei Vasilevskiy unless the circumstances force him to turn to veteran backup Curtis McElhinney.
He believes the five-month pause due to COVID-19 should have Vasilevskiy ready to handle the additional workload.
“It would be like being at the end of October, maybe start of November,” said Cooper. “I think that really helps the fatigue factor, having that much time off.”
There’s a lot riding on this week of summer hockey.
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Both Boston and Tampa justifiably view themselves as Stanley Cup contenders, but they don’t have much margin for error here. Beyond fatigue, there’s a possibility injuries play a factor in the outcome — like the one that knocked Lightning defenceman Ryan McDonagh out of Game 1, and have left him questionable for Game 2 — which is why neither team plans to spend much time on the ice other than when they’re playing.
This most unusual of seasons has demanded some changes from the regular routines. It might make for some interesting lineup decisions the longer this series goes on, too, because of a schedule that could see them play Sunday-Tuesday-Wednesday-Friday-Sunday-Tuesday-Wednesday inside the Toronto bubble.
“I understand why they’re doing it,” said Cooper. “The big difference is neither team has to travel. So you’re taking a 10-minute bus ride from the rink back to the hotel, everybody’s on an even playing field. So that probably makes it, well, a lot more easier. Not ideal.”
If they’re 60-minute games it’s one thing, but if you’re going to play five overtimes that might make your decisions a little bit different.
“We’ll just have to take it a game at a time and see how this series plays out.”
