Bruins Notes: Bruce Cassidy Praises Anders Bjork, ‘Thought He Held His Own’

Anders Bjork got himself on the scoresheet in his second game of the 2019-20 season.

The Bruins winger scored his first goal of the season for Boston in the second period, going top-shelf on Blues goalie Jordan Binnington in the 3-0 shutout win over St. Louis on Saturday night at TD Garden.

Bjork made his season debut Tuesday against the Toronto Maple Leafs and amassed four shots on goal without finding the back of the net. And now that he got the first goal out of the way, Bjork wants to continue to focus on improving.

“It’s nice to get that one,” he said after the game, per the team, “but I want to stay consistent and level-headed here and keep moving forward and improving.”

Bruce Cassidy was happy to see one go in for Bjork after having some good looks in his debut.

“Nice to see him get rewarded, he made a nice play,” Cassidy said after the game, per a team-provided transcript. “… And Anders, that was a bomb. It was a good shot. It’s something I don’t know if he had a couple of years ago, that one timer. I thought he was good at hunting pucks. I thought he was good on the walls. He got stripped a couple times in the D zone by heavy teams, so that’s the education part for him now. He’s against men every night, especially a team like that, but I thought he held his own.

“He works hard. he’s quiet, no maintenance, he comes to work every day,” he added. “So, I think they’re genuinely happy for him because he’s gone through a couple of tough injuries and he’s worked his way through it, and it looks like he’s going to be a National Hockey League player. I don’t want to jump to conclusions after two games, but so far so good.”

Bjork has battled shoulder injuries over the last two seasons, limiting his time with the B’s to just 50 games. But he appears to be as close to 100 percent as possible and will get another chance to impress Sunday when the Bruins take on the New York Rangers.

Here are some other notes from Saturday’s Bruins-Blues game:

— David Pastrnak joined some elite company, becoming just the eighth player in the past 27 years to score at least 11 goals through the team’s first 10 games, according to NHL Public Relations.

Pastrnak also becomes just the fourth player to notch 11 goals in 10 games, joining Dit Clapper (1929-30), Phil Esposito (1973-74, 1974-75) and Charlie Simmer (1985-86).

— This was the first time Boston and St. Louis met since Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final. The Blues, of course, defeated the Bruins on their home ice in the decisive game. While many players chalked this up a “just another game,” their head coach thought it felt like a little bit more.

“Felt like we were back in the playoffs,” Cassidy said, per the transcript. “Good, solid, clean hits and I think as the game went on, it became your typical hockey game. We got the lead, started well, had some good looks early, kept them out of our end, didn’t give up much, and that’s important with St. Louis.”

— Zdeno Chara played a team-high 21:00 of ice time and credited his teammates for playing a solid 60 minutes.

“I think we played a strong game throughout the whole 60 minutes,” he said after the game, per the Bruins. “We were able to score early and control the game.”

— Tuukka Rask recorded his second shutout of the season, stopping all 26 shots he faced.

— The Bruins improved to 4-0-1 at home with the victory.