BRUINS RAMP THINGS UP AFTER ‘PRACTICE’ ROUND
Boston’s ‘Perfection Line’ comes up big against Hurricanes in game that matters
“We in here talking about practice. I mean, listen, we talking about practice. Not a game. Not a game. Not a game. We talking about practice. Not a game. Not the game that I go out there and die for and play every game like it’s my last. Not the game. But practice. How silly is that?”
That was from Allen Iverson’s famous rant on why it was OK for him to miss practice when he was playing for the Philadelphia 76ers. Sub “round robin” in for “practice” and you had Brad Marchand’s thoughts on the importance of going without a win during the games that determined playoff seeding.
Boston was the best team in the regular season this year. But the Bruins were the worst team in the round robin, losing to Philadelphia, Tampa Bay and Washington to drop down to the No. 4 seed for the playoffs.
According to Marchand, the latter had nothing to do with whether the Presidents’ Trophy winners were still the team to beat for the Stanley Cup.
“It doesn’t mean anything,” Marchand said the other day. “Those were pre-season games. I mean, let’s call it what it is. They’re exhibition games for the playoffs.”
Give Marchand credit. The Bruins squad that went 0-3 in those so-called exhibition games wasn’t the team we saw in Game 1 of the actual playoffs.
A switch was flipped on Wednesday. This wasn’t practice. And it certainly wasn’t the round robin, as the Bruins defeated the Carolina Hurricanes 4-3 in double overtime of a game that had to be played a day later after Game 1 between Tampa Bay and Columbus went to a fifth overtime and ran late on Tuesday.
That Patrice Bergeron scored the winning goal at 1:13 in the fifth period, with David Pastrnak and Marchand picking up the assists, must have caused Bruins fans to breath a collective sigh of relief. But head coach Bruce Cassidy said he wasn’t surprised that the Perfection Line, which combined for two goals and four assists after going without a point in the round robin, came to play when it mattered the most.
“Relief is not the right word in my estimation,” said Cassidy. “These guys are battle-tested. … We have trust in those guys.
“Even though they’ve played together a long time, it had been four months and change, and now you’re coming into a part of the season that’s high stakes. They’ve missed a little bit of that in the round robin and tonight they know there’s a little more at stake, as well.
“Put those two things together, those two factors together, and we knew they’d be there and competing and competing at a high level. And when they do that, they’re so talented and smart that things are going to happen for them and they did.”
The Bruins had swept the Hurricanes in last year’s Eastern Conference final, mostly because Tuukka Rask stood on his head and allowed just five goals in four games. But based on Game 1, it’s not the Boston goalie that Carolina has to worry about the most.
“I knew they were going to play a good hockey game, that we were going to get the best of the Bruins,” said Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour, who was without forward Justin Williams and defenceman Sami Vatanen, who are both questionable for Game 2. “I thought they were really good. And I was afraid we were going to be a little sluggish. And we were. But that’s to their credit. They played a better game than we did overall.”
The Hurricanes took a 1-0 lead midway through the first period when Joel Edmundson finished off a tick-tack-toe passing play. But Pastrnak tied things up a few minutes later on a play that began with Bergeron winning a faceoff back to Marchand, who whipped a cross-crease pass to the Rocket Richard Trophy winner.
Boston and Carolina traded goals again in the second and third periods, leading to overtime. The first 20 minutes of extra play settled nothing. But 73 seconds into the second overtime, Boston’s talented trio went back to work.
In what was an equal display of chemistry and skill, Marchand and Pastrnak travelled the length of the ice while playing giveand-go with the puck. Carolina’s defence looked mesmerized as the two wingers wove in and out of traffic. So, too, did Cassidy.
“It looked beautiful here, too,” said the Bruins’ head coach.
Once in the slot, Pastrnak looked like he was going to shoot. Instead, he dropped a pass to Bergeron, who beat goalie Petr Mrazek with a well-placed wrist shot.
“We’re a confident group, a confident line,” said Bergeron. “We got better as the round robin went on. Obviously, you want more. You want to continue to take steps. We thought that tonight was a really important game, obviously. We had to put whatever was behind us in the past.”
Meanwhile, Boston and Carolina play Game 2 tonight.
That could mean we see both teams use their backup goalies.
Whoever is in net for Carolina, the challenge looks a lot tougher today than it did immediately following the round robin. After all, this isn’t an exhibition game. This is the playoffs.
And the Bruins, who went to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final last year, know how to win in the playoffs.
I knew they were going to play a good hockey game, that we were going to get the best of the Bruins.