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Bruins show formula for potential playoff success

April 28, 2021, 12:34 PM ET [12 Comments]
Anthony Travalgia
Boston Bruins Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The way things are looking, the Bruins are heading towards a first round playoff date with either the Washington Capitals or Pittsburgh Penguins.

On Tuesday, the Bruins showed the formula needed to beat either—or potentially—both of those teams in order to achieve playoff success.

Their 3-1 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins featured:

Great goaltending (25 saves from Tuukka Rask)
Scoring from their top-six (David Krejci, Brad Marchand and Taylor Hall)
Excellent penalty killing (3-3 on the penalty kill)
Blue-collar work from their bottom six

Mix in some power play success (0-1 Tuesday) and there's not more you can ask.

"There's a lot to like from everybody tonight, to be honest with you,” said head coach Bruce Cassidy. “[We] played a good, determined game. Our top guys did the finishing tonight and our bottom guys did a lot of the dirty work, the grunt work, the physicality. It's a good formula for us."

The style of hockey in the playoffs is much different than that of the regular season. As we’ve seen in years past, there’s a lot more digging and grinding your way to victories than in the regular season.

The good ice is hard to come by, high-danger scoring chances are sometimes few and far between, and mistakes more often end up in the back of your net.

Tuesday’s victory in Pittsburgh—one that snapped the Bruins two game losing streak—certainly felt like playoff hockey.

It was a tight-checking, defensive special on display at PPG Paints Arena.

“These past couple of games have been playoff-type hockey. Both teams are defending, the ice is tough to get out there, there’s no space to make fancy plays,” said Rask.

“You have to be patient and today we played a very smart and patient game. And we got rewarded. Moving forward, we have to be comfortable playing those types of games. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. But chances are when you play like that, you win.

As dominant as the Bruins top-six was, led by the Patrice Bergeron line, it was the bottom-six that was equally as impressive.

With Jake DeBrusk a healthy scratch, the third and fourth lines looked a little different Tuesday. Trent Frederic rejoined the lineup, playing on the fourth line with Chris Wagner and Curtis Lazar.

But with Frederic’s early jump, Cassidy moved him to the third line with Sean Kuraly and Charlie Coyle. It was a move that did not benefit the Bruins on the scoresheet, but a move that made things more difficult for the Penguins.

Setting the tone for the remainder of the game, and for the first time in three games, it was an effort by the bottom-six to be proud of.

"We kept Sean in the middle. I thought he did a good job with Coyle, making it hard on their defenseman, and [Frederic] as well, in there banging and annoying people. He did a good job on the walls,” said Cassidy.

Arguably the most impressive part of Tuesday’s contest was what the Bruins were able to do to the Sidney Crosby line.

In the 14:34 of five-on-five ice time Crosby saw with Jake Guentzel and Bryan Rust, the Bruins held the edge in:

Shot attempts: 21-10
Shots on goal: 13-3
Scoring chances: 15-5
High-danger scoring chances: 6-0
Goals: 3-0


The Crosby line saw a heavy dose of the Charlie McAvoy/Matt Grezlcyk pairing, 6:57 of five-on-five ice time against Bergeron and 4:13 of five-on-five ice time against Krejci.

"We addressed some things before the game. Obviously, we know where we're at in the standings, what's going on around us,” said Krejci. “We talked about some stuff. I thought for the most part we stuck to the game plan and did exactly what we talked about."
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