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Game 3 Stanley Cup Final | Boston Bruins VS St. Louis Blues

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Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals didn’t go Boston’s way. After trading goals back and forth with St. Louis, the first period ended tied at 2. Despite goals from Charlie Coyle and Joakim Nordstrom, the Bruins attack soon fell flat. The second and third periods were defensive battles that resulted in no scores, forcing overtime. Just 3:51 into that overtime period with a delayed call against the Bruins, Blues defenseman Carl Gunnarsson scored to tie the series 1-1.

A Physical Game

The Blues played with a physical ferocity that the Bruins couldn’t keep up with. A hit by Blues center Oskar Sundqvist on Bruins defenseman Matt Grzelcyk resulted in a two minute penalty and Grzelcyk leaving the game. He’s now in concussion protocol, will miss at least Game 3 and likely Game 4. Sundqvist was given a one-game suspension. Once again, goalie Tuukka Rask was outstanding, but in the second and third periods the Bruins seemed sluggish. Whether there’s still some rust or they were just tired from the physical play, the Bruins didn’t look like themselves. The first line of Bergeron, Marchand, and Pastrnak was separated, moving Pasta to the second line and bumping up Danton Heinen.  They never got into a rhythm and the team suffered for it.

Photo by Matt Stone

“I know we haven’t played our best yet,” Center Charlie Coyle said after the game. “Our starts have been off for whatever reason. So we just have to look at some things and go over some things… We have to be on time in this league.”

Bringing the Battle to St. Louis

Game 3 will be an uphill battle. The Blues will be riding the momentum of their win and they’ll be feeding off the energy of the St. Louis home crowd. Boston will have to play their best game of the season. That said, in Game 2 the Bruins looked completely off their game and the Blues played their hearts out. Despite that, it still took an OT delayed call for the Blues to win.

The Bruins have everything they need to take Game 3. In Game 2 they couldn’t keep the puck in the zone, they gave up too many turnovers, and they couldn’t capitalize on power plays. They’ll need to be more productive on the power play, establish offensive zone time, and shoot more instead of attempting as many unnecessary passes that resulted in turnovers. This series is still early. There’s a lot of time left for the first line to get into their groove and lead the way.

Photo by Bruce Bennett

Defenseman Torey Krug had this to say about that first, “Perfection Line”, “That’s kind of been the way the playoffs have gone for them, right? In every series, you give them enough time and enough reps against a certain matchup, they’re smart enough hockey players, they know what’s going to be open and they’ll find a way to break through.”

How To Win

It’s going to be a physical and punishing game. The Big Bad Bruins will need to be just that and dish it out just as much as they get it. The Blues think they found a chink in Boston’s armor and they’ll be on the attack. The Bruins will need to be just as physical, if not more so. Clean hits and staying out of the box will be key. Tuukka Rask will keep them in the game, the first and fourth lines (the best lines thus far) will need to step up and take the game away. Coach Bruce Cassidy said that in Matt Grzelcyk’s absence, defenseman John Moore will likely take his place. Moore could just be the fresh spark the Bruins need.

Boston Bruins

GAME 2-STANLEY CUP FINALS| Boston Bruins vs St. Louis Blues

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After a wild comeback that included a very angry Torey Krug, the Boston Bruins took Game One of the Stanley Cup Finals and defeated the St. Louis Blues 3-2.  Despite the slow start that saw the Bruins looking a bit rusty after an 11-day layoff, they quickly found their legs and dominated the rest of the game. Tonight, Boston will be looking to keep the momentum going as they face a St. Louis team who will no doubt come out looking to take at least one game at the TD Garden.

Boston Bruins
(Photo Credits: AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

EVERY LINE COUNTS

Monday night’s game saw great plays from all lines, with contributions from the back end to the first line.  With the Bruins down 2-0, both defensemen Connor Clifton and Charlie McAvoy got Boston on board, tying up the game. Blue-liner Sean Kuraly once again notched the winning goal that moved the Bruins ahead of the Blues. Brad Marchand placed the final nail on the coffin when he scored an empty netter, making the final score 4-2.

PUSHBACK

Expect continued strong shifts from all Bruins lines tonight, and a more ready Blues team, who undoubtedly will make adjustments to their game. Boston held practice yesterday and will hold an optional pregame skate this morning. For St. Louis, Jordan Binnington will most likely get the start in net. The rookie goaltender made 34 saves, and understandably looked less than happy with the goals that squeaked by him. Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask made 18 saves, and now has .940 save percentage in the post season, with a 1.85 goals against average.

Boston Bruins
(Photo Credits: AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Players to watch: Brayden Schen and Vladimir Tarasenko.  Blues Coach Craig Berube stated Robert Thomas will sit out for tonight’s game. Thomas was famously hit by Torey Krug in a shot heard around the hockey world. St. Louis has been in this position before when they faced the San Jose Sharks, dropping Game One to battle back to win the Western Conference. The Bruins will continue to play a fast and more physical game as they look to once again get through the Blues big defense.

LOOKING AHEAD

“We knew what our best game looks like and we’re confident we can win. We know the first one wasn’t what we wanted and we’re going to respond and tie the series up. That’s our plan and we’re just going to keep taking it one day at a time.”

Blues Forward Ryan O’Reilly

“We weren’t too happy with the way the game was going….weren’t playing our game and I think after the second goal, our guys, that kind of woke us up. We needed something good to happen and it did.”

Bruins Coach Bruce Cassidy

WHEN TO WATCH:  Tonight with puck drop just after 8:00 pm, TD Garden, Boston

WHERE TO WATCH: NBCSN

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The Big Bad Bruins are Back

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The Boston Bruins showed a bit of rust in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final. That was to be expected after having ten days off. In the first period they ended with only eight shots on goal and down 1-0. It didn’t take long to shake that rust off, however. After going down 2-0 early in the second period the Bruins finally found life. Goals from defensemen Connor Clifton and Charlie McAvoy tied the game at 2, and the St. Louis Blues wouldn’t score again. Meanwhile, Sean Kuraly would score the go-ahead goal and Brad Marchand sealed the game with an empty netter. In the last two periods the Bruins out-shot the Blues 30-12 and beat them 4-2 to take a 1-0 series lead.

That Old Feeling

In a rematch of the Stanley Cup Finals from 1970 it’s appropriate that this game had a feeling of ‘70s hockey. It was physical and the referees let the boys play. Also appropriate is the Bruins felt like their brutally physical ‘70s counterparts. Just as they were nicknamed in that era, last night the Big Bad Bruins returned. At one point Brad Marchand made a play on goal and Blues goalie Jordan Binnington hit Marchand with his stick, losing it in the play. After the play was blown dead, Marchand skated past Binnington, giving him a shoulder bump along the way. That was one of the friendlier interactions of the night.

Changing Momentum

Photo by Bob DeChiara

The key moment in the game came from defenseman Torey Krug. While in the Bruins defensive zone, in front of Tuukka Rask in net, Krug and Blues forward David Perron got into a wrestling match. It started with a couple of hacks of the sticks, then Perron began shoving Krug from behind several times while Krug stood his ground. Perron fell on top of Krug and pushed his head down once before trying to get back to his feet, pulling Krug’s head back twice and yanking his helmet off. Krug, not backing down, held Perron’s right leg, causing both of them to fall down again. Perron then successfully got back to his skates, straddled over Krug, and pushed his head back down, before skating after the puck, now in the Blues defensive zone.

Torey Krug was clearly angry. He got to his skates, flew up the ice, and with no helmet he ran full-speed into rookie forward Robert Thomas, knocking both of them down. No penalty was called on any of it. The wrestling match was questionable, but Krug’s hit on Thomas was legal. Thomas had the puck, the hit was shoulder to shoulder, and while Krug’s skates did come off the ice it wasn’t until after the contact. The Big Bad Bruins, led by Torey Krug of all people, were back in force in Game 1.

David Backes perfectly summed it up after the game. “That gave me goosebumps. He doesn’t have a helmet on but he goes right up the ice and lays a big hit. He thinks he’s playing thirty, forty years ago.”

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Bruins/Blues: The Rematch

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The dust has settled in the NHL and the Boston Bruins are going to the Stanley Cup Final. They’ll be playing the St. Louis Blues in a rematch of the 1970 Stanley Cup Final. This is St. Louis’s first trip back since that game. Meanwhile, this is Boston’s first Finals appearance since they lost in Game 6 to the Chicago Blackhawks in 2013. That was the infamous game in which Tuukka Rask gave up two goals in 17 seconds. It was a heart-wrenching succession that Bruins fans have had to live with ever since. To this day my Chicago friends will still bring it up just to get under my skin. But this isn’t 2013, and this isn’t the same Tuukka Rask.

The Great Wall of Rask

Rask has played great all season, going 27-13-5 in 46 games played with a GAA of 2.48 for a .912 save percentage. In the playoffs he’s now 12-5 with a 1.84 GAA and .942 save percentage. In other words, thus far, Tuukka Rask has been a brick wall. He’s provided an energetic spark of confidence for the rest of the team and it shows. The “Perfect Line” of Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, and David Pastrnak have been just that lately, though it took some time to get there. In the first round against Toronto, Coach Bruce Cassidy was switching Pastrnak back and forth between lines, trying to get him into a rhythm and get him productive again. Thankfully, Rask’s performance in net allowed the time for such tinkering, and ultimately it has paid off.

Photo by USA Today Sports

Time Off

Game 1 is set for Monday, May 27, at 8 pm EST. By the time the final series of the season begins, the Bruins will have had an eleven day break. There’s always a concern of a hot team cooling with that much time off. In fact, this post season every team coming off a sweep has lost the following series. That’s not a stat that bodes well for the Black and Gold, but this team is different. Instead, this time off will give Captain Zdeno Chara some time to heal (he sat during Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Final with an undisclosed injury), and give Tukka Rask a bit of well-earned rest.

Photo by Amy Irvin

Boston’s not the only team with a break, however. The Blues will have had five days off before they take the ice in Game 1. Bruins Coach Cassidy has stated that he met with the New England Patriots to discuss techniques for handling a long break before playing a championship game. He refused to disclose what was said, but if anyone had proper advice for this situation it would be the Patriots. With that experience in their corner, all four lines coming alive, and the stellar play of Tuukka Rask of late, the Boston Bruins could well be on their way to hoist the Cup once again. Boston doesn’t have names like Orr, Esposito, Sanderson, or Cheevers this time, but they have Bergeron, Marchand, Pastrnak, and Rask. Perhaps the Big Bad Bruins are back and the rematch ends with the same result.

McAvoy

Charlie McAvoy: What’s Next?

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The 2018-2019 NHL season is rapidly coming to a close. The Boston Bruins have clinched the Eastern Conference and are four wins away from winning the Stanley Cup. This would be their first time in eight years and the seventh time in franchise history. The Cup is close to coming back to Boston. No matter what happens, the off-season is looming in the near-future, and with it contract negotiations.

Photo by Joshua Kloke

Contract Extension

One of the biggest off-season moves for the Bruins is extending defenseman Charlie McAvoy, who becomes a restricted free agent at the end of this year. McAvoy has been a reliable staple on the blue line lately, partnered with Zdeno Chara. He recently turned down a long-term offer by the Bruins, suspected to be due to recent offers to similar players such as defenseman Esa Lindell. Lindell was extended by the Dallas Stars on a 6 year, $34.8 million contract, giving him $5.8 million a year. He scored 11 goals this season and put up 32 points. Making that more enticing is his youth. Lindell is only 25. McAvoy wants a similar contract and why not? The kid’s young with plenty of potential that he’s sure to live up to.

Value

Charlie McAvoy was an integral part of the USA team in the 2017 World Junior Ice Hockey Championship. He received the Player of the Game honor in their gold-medal game win. McAvoy’s also got youth on his side, at 21 years-old, and his stats are impressive this season. He’s missed 28 games due to a concussion, a lower-body injury, and a one-game suspension. Despite that, he has 8 goals and 35 points thus far. McAvoy has the ability to become a superstar on an already star-studded Bruins roster.

(Getty Images)

Salary Cap Era

Unfortunately, we live in the salary cap era. Dallas can afford to pay Lindell $34.8 million over 6 years because they have the cap space. The Bruins aren’t as fortunate. GM Don Sweeney is still filling the hole that was dug by former GM Peter Chiarelli. McAvoy would be in the upper-echelon pay scale of Bruins players with a contract similar to Lindell’s. He’s a great defenseman who looks to only get better, but is he worth paying as much or more than someone like David Pastrnak? More to the point, is he worth paying so much against the cap that the Bruins can’t afford to keep some of their other top-tier players for much longer? The Chicago Blackhawks did that a few seasons ago with Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews and it hurt the team.

What Can Be Done

One potential solution is extending the time on the contract. An amount such as $30 million over four years is unrealistic, but over six or seven years could be manageable. It comes down to McAvoy and what he’s willing to accept versus what he feels he’s worth. Would he be willing to take a pay cut to stay in Boston? Furthermore, what happens if the Bruins win the Stanley Cup? The way McAvoy plays combined with his ice time would be factors in that win, giving him a much larger bargaining chip. However, the salary cap is ruthless and inflexible. Only time will tell but this will certainly be an interesting and potentially exciting off-season.

Boston Bruins

Stanley Cup Finals: Boston Bruins Advance

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The Boston Bruins are advancing to the Stanley Cup Final, their first since 2013. After a hard-fought sweep of the Carolina Hurricanes, Boston will now have reached the finals for the 20th time in their history.

All About That Line

It was a night that belonged to not only the Finnish brick wall that is Tuukka Rask, but to Boston’s formidable “perfection line”. David Pastrnak got the Bruins on the board when he tipped in a power-play goal fed from his line-mate Brad Marchand early in the second. Patrice Bergeron notched in the second power-play goal of the night, after a pass from Pastrnak. Later in the third, Bergeron once again had a snapshot towards an open Carolina net after a pass from Pastrnak. The nail in the coffin came by way of Brad Marchand when he netted an empty-net goal late in the third, making the final score of 4-0, completing the sweep. That top line combined for eight points in last night’s win.

“The last few games, we knew we could be a little bit better than what we’ve been. With the situation we’ve been in, being up 3-0, everyone in the room wanted to be at their best”

Bruins Forward Brad Marchand
Boston Bruins
(Photo Courtesy NHL Bruins)

The Bruins 20th appearance in the Stanley Cup Final is fourth in the league. They join Montreal, Detroit and Toronto. There are also a few Bruins players that will be making a third appearance in the Finals with the club: Bergeron, Chara, Krejci, Marchand and Rask. Last night’s win also marks the teams’ seventh straight postseason win.

It’s Tuukka Time

Rask continued his brilliance in net, stopping 109 of the 114 shots he faced this series. He also made 24 stops last night in the 4-0 shutout, and has now surpassed both Gerry Cheevers and Tim Thomas for most series-clinching shutouts in B’s history. He is now also ranked first in the NHL postseason among goalies for goals-against-average (1.84) with a .942 save percentage. Rask is now the seventh goalie in NHL history to have a win in more than eight appearances in the Conference Finals.

“Tuukka’s been very consistent. If you’re gonna get on a roll, your goaltender’s gonna have to be there for you… he can’t have a bad night if you’re gonna string together that many wins.”

Head Coach Bruce Cassidy

Number 37

Bergeron’s night of power-play goals have him ranked second in Bruins post-season history to Cam Neely’s nine in 1991. He is also fifth in Bruins history to have the most postseason goals with 39, surpassing Peter McNab.

Zdeno Chara rested last night after it was reported he was suffering from an undisclosed injury. The Captain, however, did not miss the opportunity to join his team on the ice after the win. Coach Bruce Cassidy addressed the concern about Chara’s injury and has stated the 42-year-old defenseman should be ready to go in Game 1.

As San Jose and St. Louis continue their series in the Western Conference, the Boston Bruins will be enjoying some time off, which hasn’t been typical for this team. No official times have been set for the Stanley Cup Final, however more than likely it’ll start the last week of May.