For the third time in four years, it’ll be the Bruins and Hurricanes in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. But for the first time in the recent history of this renewed rivalry, it’ll be the Hurricanes who hold the home ice advantage, as the B’s will begin their postseason in their road whites and in the noise factory known as Raleigh’s PNC Arena.
“I think we’re gonna be fine tonight [and] ready to go,” Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy said of the Game 1 start away from TD Garden. “Whether that translates into a win tonight, who knows.
“I think it helps when you have adversity to know that that’s going to come, you’ve got to play through it, focus on the next shift or next game, whatever it is,” said Cassidy. “But I think Carolina has some now, has built that over the years, maybe not the first go ’round we played them, but they’ve been right there every year now for three or four years.”
The Hurricanes have to come into the series as the favorites after their 2021-22 head-to-head, too, with three wins in as many games, along with a plus-15 goal differential, at 16-to-1.
“That’s the great thing about playoffs: it’s a new season,” B’s winger Brad Marchand said. “Now when you’re playing for all the marbles you see the guys step up that can play at this level and this pace and you see the regular season players.
“You never know how it’s gonna play out. It’s always a war.”
But how will everything shake out when the puck drop shortly after 7 p.m. on Monday night?
BOSTON, MA – FEBRUARY 10: Jordan Staal #11 of the Carolina Hurricanes celebrates his goal against the Boston Bruins during the third period with his teammates Brady Skjei #76, Tony DeAngelo #77, Jesper Fast #71 and Nino Niederreiter #21 at the TD Garden on February 10, 2022 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Rich Gagnon/Getty Images)
Why I’m on Team ‘Throw the regular season out the window’
I don’t want to take anything away from the Hurricanes. I really don’t. They’re an awesome team, and they’re clearly building something down there. But there’s something about their 2021-22 season series with the Bruins — particularly the 3-0-0 record and gaudy-looking 16-to-1 scoring edge that favored Carolina — that makes me wanna throw an asterisk out there.
Going back to the first game between the teams, the Bruins were an incomplete team with countless names and faces still trying to figure out how they factored into the Bruins’ mix. The Bruins were also victimized by a pair of goals that went off their own players and into the net. Those tallies made the difference by the night’s end.
The second game was one of the Tuukka Rask comeback games, and the third came without Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand available. I’m not saying burn the tape, but the Rask game came with bad defensive play and a banged-up goaltender who couldn’t carry them to victory and the other was played without the B’s two most important forwards.
Kinda big, no?
Oh, and all three games came without Hampus Lindholm.
WASHINGTON, DC – APRIL 10: Linus Ullmark #35 of the Boston Bruins looks on against the Washington Capitals during the second period at Capital One Arena on April 10, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
What kind of goalie is Linus Ullmark?
I find Bruins netminder Linus Ullmark just absolutely fascinating.
A career-long Sabre prior to his decision to sign with the Bruins, Ullmark’s rationale for coming to the Bruins was a simple one: He wanted to be part of a deep playoff run. He wasn’t sure how Tuukka Rask or Jeremy Swayman would factor into all of that, but he wanted to experience it after failing to even sniff the postseason throughout his Buffalo tenure.
His approach is a bit different than what we’re used to here, to some extent, too. He’s a bit more reserved and at times almost guarded, but you can certainly see his personality shine through at certain points (and beyond the postgame hug with Jeremy Swayman), with Ullmark looking and sounding loose as can be. It’s just a big change from what you became used to with Tuukka Rask and Jaro Halak. And I’m dying to see how it plays out on this stage.
Is he cool as a cucumber and has some ice water in his veins or does he wear his heart on his sleeve?
“Around [the coaching staff he’s fairly quiet. He’s got his interactions with Bob, but I think with the players, you see a different side,” Cassidy said of Ullmark’s demeanor. “I think he definitely has personality. You can tell sometimes how a guy expresses himself with how he dresses, maybe the car he drives, etc. I think sometimes that gives you a peek. I think he does have personality, just not as outgoing around us, and that’s fine. He’s very well liked [in the locker room], I think when you come to a new team, there’s always an adjustment. I think as the year has gone on, he’s gotten more comfortable.”
Ullmark enters the postseason as the hottest goalie in the NHL, with a 9-1-0 record and .945 save percentage over his final 12 appearances of the season. Those nine wins were the sixth-most in the NHL over that spell, while that .945 save percentage was tops among all NHL goalies with at least 10 appearances since Mar. 15.
TORONTO, ONTARIO – AUGUST 17: Jake DeBrusk #74 of the Boston Bruins stretches during warm-ups prior to Game Four of the Eastern Conference First Round against the Carolina Hurricanes during the 2020 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at Scotiabank Arena on August 17, 2020 in Toronto, Ontario. (Elsa/Getty Images)
All eyes on the sizzlin’ Jake DeBrusk
The big question for the Bruins in this series: Can Jake DeBrusk keep it rolling as the Black and Gold’s top-line right wing?
Thrown to the right of Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand back on Feb. 24, DeBrusk (who still wanted a trade out of Boston at the time) responded by scoring a team-leading 16 goals over his final 32 games of the campaign.
“Jake’s actually been a really strong playoff performer, so we should be excited about where he’s at given the second part of his year,” Bruins general manager Don Sweeney said. “He knows what it takes, he knows he’s going to play against top players and top lines, and he’s responded really well to that challenge.”
DeBrusk’s 16 goals in 59 playoff games since 2018 actually ranks as the 24th-most in hockey over that stretch.
Jan 18, 2022; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Bruins center Patrice Bergeron (37) reacts with left wing Taylor Hall (71) after scoring a goal past Carolina Hurricanes goaltender Frederik Andersen (31). (Bob DeChiara/USA TODAY Sports)
Can B’s power play build off strong finale?
Boston’s power play was mired in an 0-for-39 spell when David Pastrnak finally broke through for them in Game 81 of the regular season. Taylor Hall scored another power-play tally just moments after Pastrnak ended the drought, and gave the B’s plenty to smile about, even if it did come against the Sabres.
Now, the breakthrough was going to come at some point — the Bruins’ man-advantage efforts against the Panthers and Rangers in the games leading up to that were too good to ignore — but that’s a lot of weight off the shoulders.
“It’s almost like when you’re in a slump and the team hasn’t won in a while, usually their last few games before they win they play well but they just don’t quite get the break,” Cassidy last week when the power play finally broke through. “And I think that’s what’s happened recently with the power play.
“You could sense it was happening. It was going to come sooner or later.”
The hope is that finally breaking out of that donut gets the Bruins feeling a bit looser on the man advantage, and that they’ll have the confidence to find the back of the net in the postseason.
And they’re going to need it against an aggressive Carolina penalty kill that led the NHL in penalty-kill percentage (88.0 percent) despite leading the league in shorthanded time on ice per game, at 5:51.
A positive within the season sweep loss to the Hurricanes this year? Boston’s only goal came on the power play.
BOSTON, MA – FEBRUARY 10: Frederik Andersen #31 of the Carolina Hurricanes celebrates a 6-0 victory against the Boston Bruins with teammate Brady Skjei #76 at the TD Garden on February 10, 2022. (Rich Gagnon/Getty Images)
Carolina is entering series with some goalie uncertainty
The Bruins boarded their plane for Raleigh expecting to see Antti Raanta in net for the Hurricanes in Game 1. That expectation was indeed correct, but there’s no doubt that Rod Brind’Amour’s squad will have options.
If the 32-year-old Raanta falters in his first career playoff start, there’s the possibility that Frederik Andersen will be available for Game 2. And if Andersen’s not ready, there’s always the 22-year-old Pyotr Kochetkov.
Not seeing Andersen, who went 3-0-0 and stopped all but one of the 99 shots thrown his way by the Bruins in 2021-22, out of the gate feels like a victory for the Bruins. But there’s also the unknown of a guy like Raanta, who the Bruins haven’t seen in action since Nov. 2016, and the complete unknown of Kochetkov, who appeared in just three NHL games this year.
So, how do the Bruins handle that or does it simply not matter?
“It does,” Cassidy admitted when asked if it matters who’s in net. “I mean, Andersen was really good against us. We can’t control who plays against us, obviously, but that’s a factor. Goalie Bob [Essensa] will go through the goalies he thinks is playing, and does a little presentation on him. We’ll have a little bit of a book on each guy. That’s what we can do best.
“At the end of the day, we’ve seen Andersen a lot of over the years in Toronto and in Carolina. We’ve seen a little bit of Raanta. The guy we haven’t seen is the young fella they brought up from Chicago. He’s a factor, too. We went through it last year with Washington. They went through three goalies. So you’re always prepared with some information.”
The Bruins will have video on all three guys to learn where they’re most susceptible, of course, but it doesn’t change the overall offensive gameplan for the Black and Gold ahead of this series, Cassidy revealed.
“It’s traffic, it’s second chances, and it’s getting to the good ice,” Cassidy said. “But at the end of the day, if they’re going through three goalies, maybe that’s not a bad thing. It means we’re scoring, hopefully.”
TORONTO, ONTARIO – AUGUST 17: Jordan Staal #11 of the Carolina Hurricanes is checked into the boards by Chris Wagner #14 of the Boston Bruins during the third period in Game Four of the Eastern Conference First Round during the 2020 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at Scotiabank Arena on August 17, 2020 in Toronto, Ontario. (Elsa/Getty Images)
Can Bruins make Hurricanes uncomfortable?
If you want to read into something, I’d look at Boston’s healthy scratches up front to begin this series. They’re going with Anton Blidh and Chris Wagner. Are these guys going to do much offensively if they’re inserted in the lineup at some point this series? Probably (maybe even definitely) not.
But one thing they can do: Hit, hit, and hit.
Among the group of 438 forwards with at least 300 minutes of five-on-five play this season, Blidh averaged 15.61 hits per 60 minutes. That ranked 19th among that group of 438. Wagner, meanwhile, racked up 11 hits and drew a penalty in his only NHL appearance of the 2021-22 season this past Friday night in Toronto. Either player would be deployed in a fourth-line role — with either Nick Foligno or Tomas Nosek promote — with the idea to seek and destroy defensemen on the forecheck.
The Bruins’ internal analytics have seemingly confirmed that the Carolina attack isn’t as strong when their defensemen are unable to activate and join the rush. One of the best ways to slow that down is to batter ’em around as best you can.