BOSTON, Mass – Like garlic to a vampire, like oil to water, the Boston Bruins and the conference semi-finals are an incompatible pair. The Bruins have been eliminated the last two seasons in this round. It does not matter if they have a historically large lead or are trying to mount a nearly as historical come back, something just seems to go wrong.
Two years ago the Bruins frittered away a series against the Carolina Hurricanes by allowing that club to jump out to a three games to one lead. Boston valiantly came back to force a game seven, but suffered defeat when Scott Walker scored an overtime winner.
We all know about last year, correct? The Bruins were cruising as they won three straight games against the Philadelphia Flyers. However, they became just the third team in the entire history of NHL hockey to blow such a lead. To make matter worse the Bruins jumped out to a 3-0 lead in game seven, only to go into a defensive shell and blow the game by a karma-ish 4-3 count. To make matters even more painful the game-winning goal was scored while the club was attempting to kill of a too many-men-on the ice penalty. If you have to ask about the significance of that, you ain’t a true Bruins fan. (If you need a refresher search “Don Cherry + Too Many Men on the Ice”).
But as we have been hearing all year long from the Bruins camp, that was last year, it means nothing. We’ll see. Actually the Bruins surprised more than a few people getting by the Montreal Canadiens, so maybe they are actually playing on house money in this round. Yet, not winning this round would mark the season as a disappointing one. Is getting past the bogeymen out of the question? Maybe not, the Bruins went 3-0-1 against Philadelphia this year and Tim Thomas was outstanding posting a 1.96 goals against average and a 94.2 save percentage in those contests.
It’s bound to by physical. Both teams like to bang and the pace should be strong. It may come down to Boston’s depth against the Flyers top talent which would seemingly bode well for Boston. Yet expectations for the teams are different. Management in Philadelphia want the Cup after just failing short against Chicago last season while the Bruins brain-trust might be viewing this series as the make or break point of the season.
Boston coach Claude Julien rolled four lines during the regular season, but cut down to three in the series against Montreal. If the Bruins want to project physically against the Flyers the line of Gregory Campbell, Shawn Thornton and Daniel Paille might see a bump in ice time. Thornton was fourth on the team with 17 hits despite playing just a bit over six and a half minutes a game against Montreal.
The top line of David Krejci, Milan Lucic and Nathan Horton were a mixed bag in round one. Lucic was nearly invisible while Horton collected two overtime goals. Far, far, too often the crafty Krejci was left with no one to craft with.
The second line of Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and Mark Recchi cobbled together four goals while the third line of Rich Peverley, Chris Kelly and Michael Ryder combined for six goals with a pair of game-winners of their own. One would suppose rookie Tyler Seguin is the next in line in case a player is needed, but one could also wonder why he wasn’t in the lineup.
Philadelphia’s speedy and gritty forwards will pose a significant challenge to the Bruins defense. Danny Briere is one of the clutch players in the NHL while Mike Richards always seems to play on the line between legality and roughness. You could suppose at least one Bruins player will suffer injury due to an action by Richards before it is over.
Zdeno Chara takes heat due to the fact he doesn’t score much in the playoffs, but that is probably a function of so much ice time. Chara averaged nearly 29 minutes of ice time per game and his partner Dennis Seidenberg played nearly 28 minutes per tilt. Sure the numbers are exaggerated a bit by three periods of OT against the Canadiens, but that still is a lot of ice time. Johnny Boychuk and Andrew Ference provide the second pairing while Tomas Kaberle and Adam McQuaid form the third line of defense.
Boston scored on a third of their power play chances during the regular season against the Flyers. That statistic has to be encouraging for a team that went 0-21 in the first round. The Bruins power play was so bad that Montreal’s penalty killers led the Bruins power play scoring on the strength of an unassisted shortie. Simply put, Kaberle has to come up with something to justify the expense it took to acquire him from Toronto. Right now one could imagine Boston GM Peter Chiarelli muttering in his popcorn about the uninspired play of a guy who cost him essentially a pair of first round picks.
Boston’s primary advantage would appear to be in goal. It may not be folly to suggest the Bruins backup goaltender (Tuukka Rask) would be the hands down starter in Philadelphia. I did say appear because although almost everyone will give the Bruins the nod in goal when prognosticating once the Flyers found a goalie they liked they enjoyed strong goaltending. Philadelphia’s Brian Boucher actually has better stats than Thomas has in the playoffs. So the advantage may not be as large as it appears—and that might spell trouble for the Bruins.
In the end, usually skill and determination wins out in the playoffs and it appears the Flyers hold an edge in both those categories. The wild cards are going to be Lucic and Kaberle; if those two players begin to contribute the Bruins may be able to pull off the upset. The barometer will be hits and lack of suspension(s) for Lucic and power play points for Kaberle. This might be the best series of the bunch, so enjoy!
Contact Tom.Schettino@prohockeynews.com
