The Boston Bruins just lost two games in a row for the first time this postseason and are now down 2-1 to the Columbus Blue Jackets. This seems to call for desperate measures for the Bruins in the eyes of some, leading to some of the most outrageous fans takes I have ever seen. To others, it means that the series is over, that Columbus is the better team and the Boston Bruins are incapable of winning 3 out of 4 against them. To me, it means absolutely nothing except that the score is now 2-1.
There is a laundry list of reasons why the Boston Bruins are not only capable of winning this series but expected to. A few heroes in the media are aware of this but many, particularly in the Boston media, are convinced that the Bruins have no chance since they lost two games by one goal each, one in double overtime and the other after hitting the post 4 times in a game that was absolutely stolen by Bobrovsky. But we’re not in this to almost win games. We’re in this to win games. Let me show you why Boston will.
The perfection line is coming back and they are pissed
If you’re thinking that Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron, and David Pastrnak are going to stay as quiet as they’ve been in Games 1-3, I want you to pay special attention.
Boston’s three best players have combined for exactly one goal by David Pastrnak that was off a skate by accident. Pastrnak has also looked lost for long stretches during this series.
I. Don’t. Care.
Are we really just going to forget who they are? Yes, they’ve been shut down in the last three games. Why are we assuming that this will continue? No matter what kind of lukewarm responses they give you in press conferences, I promise that they are the three most determined players on the team going into game 4. Not only that, but the three of them are reuniting for game 4, and Cassidy will live and die by this line from here on out.
This is great news for Boston. The chemistry of these three is important when they’re slumping. They’ll be playing in more familiar circumstances. Pastrnak, in particular, should benefit from this since he finally won’t have to spend focus on playing with linemates he hasn’t played with all season. Also, everyone below them has been playing so well, so they’ll hold their own without dropping Pastrnak down.
It makes more sense for match-ups than it did against Toronto. Columbus has a very strong shutdown pair in Zach Werenski and Seth Jones. If they’re always going to be against the Bergeron line, you want as much firepower as possible to go up against them. The Jackets’ bottom two pairs are good, but nothing as special as their top pair. Toronto had no shutdown pair (C’mon, Reilly and Hainsey?) so it made sense to spread out the scoring. That’s neither here nor there. I’m not here to talk about the Leafs. Who’d they beat this week? Nobody.
These three have no history of playoff struggles. Quite the opposite, actually. We lost two out of three tight games by one goal and there’s no way they’ll stay this quiet for the rest of the series. That alone is enough reason not to be concerned.
Boston’s Bruins defense has been nearly perfect
Look, I’m not going to throw some advanced stats at you and tell you the Bruins have been playing better this series. They haven’t been. That’s exactly why these Corsi ratings are useful. We can see that the Bruins have been outplayed in the last two games with our eyes on the offensive side. The fact that the Corsi events are still very much to Boston’s side shows how effective our defense has been. The offense looks dead and yet the Bruins still end up with more Corsi events because they play better as a 5-man unit than any team left in the playoffs.
Also, for those of you that like to tell me that Corsi doesn’t matter against Columbus since they block so many shots…
Tuukka Rask hasn’t outplayed Bobrovsky, but that’s not the reason for these last two losses. He’s been good. In game 3 he had a little bit of trouble, losing his net and not being totally sharp at times. That said, the only questionable goal he’s let in was a shot that bounced off the heel of a stick from 25 feet away. As good as he’s been, Bob has been better, which brings me to my next point.
Bobrovsky will crack
Bobrovsky has been unreal. It’s nice to see a player who’s had struggles in the playoffs finally have a quality performance. That said, he’s overperforming at the moment. Yes, he’s made timely saves, but he gets a lot of help since his defense blocks absolutely everything. The Bruins have hit the post more times than I can count in this series, and a lot of the more ridiculous saves he’s made in the series have involved a bit of luck.
I’m not saying that all of a sudden he’ll break down and the floodgates will open for the Bruins. We can’t forget that Bobrovsky is still a very good goalie. He’s way too good to start performing terribly all of a sudden. All I’m saying is that his current level of play is not sustainable. You can expect some more of these high-quality shots by Boston to start going in the net in the rest of this series.
Much like in the first round, this team has yet to reach its potential
Look, being down a game in a series is nothing new to these Bruins. In fact, this is the fourth time the Boston Bruins have been down in a series this postseason. How many times during the Toronto series did we Boston fans find ourselves saying, “We need to play much better next game or we’ll be out of this series.”? Three. Each time it happened, the Bruins came out and played their best hockey, with their very best coming in their two elimination games.
This team is at their best with their backs against the wall. They’ve done it all season, battling through a laundry list of injuries while climbing from the second wild card all the way to the third best record in hockey. They did it in the first round against the Leafs on several occasions. Now, will do it in round two against Columbus.
Also, real quick on the Marchand jab. Without commenting on what I actually think of the hit, I will say this. Marchand did this because he wanted to risk a penalty to try to get in the heads of the Jackets. This is what he’s done his entire career. The best thing Columbus can do as a team is pretending like it never happened and play Marchand the same way they’ve been playing with him. Going after him would be playing right into what he wants. That said, if the team took this anywhere near the way the fans did, Marchand is cooking up some steaks in their kitchen as we speak.
