from Luke Fox of Sportsnet,

Bruce Cassidy decided to bring a sledgehammer to a chess match.

Sensing a need for an intensity boost after his club were left gasping and flat after the Toronto Maple Leafs’ series-opening win Thursday, the Boston Bruins coach vowed do to things differently in Game 2.

Then he tweaked his roster, juggled his match-ups, and unleashed the hounds.

As David Backes walked down from the press box and toward the Bruins’ dressing room pre-game, the happy-nasty veteran snatched a yellow rally towel off a stack of freebies and giddily twirled it over his head. He was going in.

From the moment Rob Gronkowski slipped on a Pastrnak sweater, whipped the Bruins flag like a madman and body-checked the glass to rile up the locals, the Bruins’ 4-1 Saturday-night steamrolling of their visitors had a feeling of inevitability — and the puck hadn’t even dropped yet.

"In playoffs, usually the team that loses comes out the next game harder," Maple Leafs defenceman Jake Muzzin said. "We have to understand that."

If the young Leafs didn’t grasp that concept before, it was drilled into the heads (and shoulders and faces) in a smash-mouth, lopsided affair that has altered the series’ tone and ratcheted the tension tenfold.

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Below, watch five minutes of nastiness from the game.

added 11:38pm, game highlights below...