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After disastrous round-robin play, Bruins ready for “real hockey” |
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While the Bruins got better with each round-robin contest, their overall performance in three round-robin losses was a bit of a disaster.
The Bruins entered the bubble in Toronto as the league’s Presidents’ Trophy winners, and the lone team in the league to reach the 100-point mark.
But thanks to three straight losses in round-robin play, they’re left as the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference and a playoff date with the Hurricanes next week.
“I think these first round-robin games or whatever they were, you just try to shake the rust off and get your team game in a place you want it to be. I think we kind of improved over these three games. We worked very hard for our goals, just didn’t get rewarded but I think that’s going to come, you find a way,” said goalie Tuukka Rask.
“It doesn’t matter what seed you are, you have to beat every team anyways if you want to advance. I think we feel good. It’s over now and we start real hockey.”
As a whole, the Bruins performance in round-robin play won’t give you much confidence going into their series with the Hurricanes, but there were certainly some positives to come from Sunday’s loss to the Capitals.
“We got better defensively against good offensive teams in Tampa and Washington. We tightened up there structurally,” said head coach Bruce Cassidy. “I thought we got through the neutral zone well the last few games, better offensively so that’s starting to come. Guys that have been there, obviously those stakes are still in the ground.”
Ondrej Kase made his bubble debut on Sunday after missing losses to the Flyers and Lightning and looked solid playing alongside Jake DeBrusk and David Krejci.
“He’s obviously a fast skater. He pushes the pace and I like to play that way too. I think we wanted to keep it simple today and just getting everything deep, even if it didn’t look clean in the neutral zone, just put it to an area,” said Jake DeBrusk who scored the Bruins lone goal on Sunday.
“I thought that he was on pucks and he almost got a good look there as well. Obviously, there’s positives, it’s just a matter of staying consistent now and learning each other. Like you said, I haven’t really played with him. I thought it was a decent first game.”
The Bruins third line of Nick Ritchie, Charlie Coyle and Anders Bjork also looked solid with Bjork being one of the Bruins better forwards in the contest. The line was consistently playing with the puck in the offensive zone, creating four high danger scoring chances for, and eight scoring chances in total.
Prior to DeBrusk’s third period tally, the Bruins best scoring chance came when a loose puck found its way to the stick of Ritchie who had open net in front of him. But the efforts of a sprawling Dmitry Orlov kept Ritchie from putting the puck into the open net.
“Bjork was in a couple times. That one sequence of plays, Ritch [Ritchie] has two looks, Washington defenseman was down on the ice. So, next time will he take the extra second and get it up or will it go in the first time? I don’t know. Those are some pretty good looks. I thought defensively they didn’t get into a lot of trouble,” said Cassidy. “Ritchie is good at holding pucks down low so cycle play should be pretty good once him and Charlie get their sort of chemistry down. I was fine with them.”
Lastly, I thought the Bruins defensemen did a good job of getting pucks through traffic and on net. Charlie McAvoy was noticeably more aggressive in the offensive job, jumping into the play more frequently than he normally does.
Nine of the Bruins 31 shots came from defensemen with McAvoy having three of those.
“It just looks like there were some good looks as the game went on from the point in terms of getting pucks through to the net for shots and tips. Specifically, in the third period, they seemed to open up some lanes for themselves. I know Charlie [McAvoy] will be up the ice when opportunities arise. He was in all alone with [Braden] Holtby in the second period, might be a save that changed the game,” said Cassidy.
“Cliffy [Connor Clifton] he’ll get involved. He’s not gun shy about getting involved in the rush. You don’t want him reckless, so there were some good things. Brandon Carlo had some good shots early on. Unfortunately, we didn’t get traffic or the right tip. So, there were again, positives there.”
The biggest positive moving forward for the Bruins I think is what hasn’t happened yet. The Bruins top line of Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak were held to just one point, an assist by Bergeron.
You would think it’s only a matter of time before the Bergeron line clicks back in, picking up where they left off in March. They can only go up from here, right?
In last year’s Eastern Conference Final sweep of the Hurricanes, the Bergeron line combined for six goals and eight assists.
“You look at our top line, they’ve been held off the scoresheet. And I believe that it’s going to be a tough task for Carolina to do that on a consistent basis. I think that those guys will be able to get their game going. But we’re going to need that primary scoring for one,” said Cassidy. “Maybe some of that will come to life on the power play.”
The biggest takeaway from round-robin play with the Bruins is that they know they can be, and need to be better. They’re also just happy that the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs are finally here.
“We just finished the game, so I haven’t really thought about Carolina yet but it’s definitely nice to go into the playoffs. You start preparing for that team,” said Krejci. “This round robin, obviously it was kind of like playoff hockey, but it wasn’t the same. It wasn’t best of seven, it’s just not the same, so I’m looking forward to first round.”
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