The Bruins won’t know their second-round opponent until Wednesday night, the earliest.
They’ll either host the New York Islanders, or head to Pittsburgh to take on the Penguins in Game 1. With the series set to finish either Wednesday or Friday, the Bruins won’t see game action until likely Saturday or Sunday, maybe even Monday.
The Bruins series victory over the Capitals in five games was one of their better series performances in recent memory. Up there with their wins over the Hurricanes and Blue Jackets in 2019.
Here are some parting thoughts as we flip the page from round one and the Capitals to round two and the Islanders or Penguins.
The Tuukka Rask implosion never came
I’m convinced there are members of the Bruins fan base and even media, that would rather see Tuukka Rask implode, and the Bruins fail, then see him succeed and the Bruins win, just so they can tell you they told you so.
Before the series began, calls for Jeremy Swayman to start Game 1 flooded sports talk radio and hockey message boards alike.
Twitter was a dumpster fire of Rask hot takes, especially after he allowed the game winning goal in overtime of Game 1.
But that implosion that many predicted and some automatically expect, never came. He only got better as the series went along. And, in Game 5, with the Bruins earning their first shot at punching their ticket to the second-round, Rask was, —wait for it—at his best.
He stopped 40 of 41 shots in the win.
"I think he’s been extremely dialed in this past series. I thought he played really well. He was very poised. He was very square to the puck, in my opinion,… team president Cam Neely said Tuesday.
“I thought he handled rebounds really well. And he got out and played some pucks, which certainly helps the defensemen.…
Goals against Rask were hard to come by. Rarely were the Capitals able to beat Rask cleanly with most goals coming off tips and deflections.
Even when the Capitals did manage to get rubber past Rask, he would immediately follow that up with big save after big save, never allowing momentum to completely sway in Washington’s favor.
With Rask in net, the Bruins never were out of a game as he was able to limit any damage done by the Capitals. He finished the series with a .941 save percentage and a 1.81 goals-against average.
Patrice Bergeron line was dominant, are more five-on-five goals coming?
The trio of Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak are the Bruins biggest threat, that my friends, is no secret. When they’re on top of their game the Bruins are even more dangerous.
In the series with the Capitals, the Bergeron line was excellent, but at the same time, five-on-five it felt like at times they could have been even better.
The three combined for eight of the 16 goals the Bruins scored in the series, but with the trio on the ice in 56:58 of five-on-five ice time, they scored just three times.
In that 56:58 of five-on-five ice time they spent together; the Bruins held the advantage in:
Shot Attempts: 89-51 Shots on goal: 46-24 Scoring chances: 44-19 High-danger scoring chances: 14-5 Goals: 3-2
“There's been so much already said about Patrice and his character and his leadership abilities. He pulls people in as opposed to pushing them away. He really wants to get to know everybody. Not just as teammates, but also personally, and their families,… said Neely.
“I give him a ton of credit for how he does lead. I don't know if there's many guys like him, not just in hockey but maybe in sports generally, especially in team sports like we're playing in. Just because of his nature and how he is and how he works and the work ethic he has, it's hard for others not to follow that. It really is."
Bruins got lucky to survive parade to penalty box
Through Tuesday’s Stanley Cup playoff action, only the Carolina Hurricanes (22) have been shorthanded more than the Bruins have (21).
The Capitals finished the regular season with the league’s third best power play, converting on 24.8% of power play opportunities.
The Bruins were equally as good on the penalty kill in the regular season, killing 86% of opposing power plays. Only the Vegas Golden Knights (86.8%) killed off opposing power plays at a better rate.
Luckily for the Bruins, their strong penalty kill was sharper than the strong power play of the Capitals, allowing three power play goals on 21 chances.
"I mean, we took 21 minors in the course of the series, that's far too many. Self-inflicted with, I think we had two too many men penalties we went through a couple of times,… said general manager Don Sweeney. “You can't necessarily count those ones as being not disciplined enough in some situations.…
At the beginning of the series, the Capitals were doing a good job of getting under the skin of Marchand, leading to a pair of undisciplined penalties.
Marchand spent a total of 10 minutes in the penalty box during the series. It was a quick conversation from management and Bergeron himself that brought Marchand back in, and back to his game.
“We all had communication with him. I think Bergy in particular had communication with him to understand the importance that he has, to our hockey club when he's on the ice, plus when he's off and in the box,… added Sweeney. “And he's one of our key penalty killers. Overall, our staff did a really nice job.…
Whether it’s the Islanders or the Penguins in the second-round, the Bruins will need to do a better job of staying out of the box. There was too much playing with fire going on in round one.
The Penguins (23.7%) finished with regular season with the league’s fourth ranked power play. The Islanders (18.8%) finished 20th.