Well, the Bruins are on the brink of elimination. But there still is time for Boston to save its season.
The B’s fell 3-1 to the Lightning on Saturday at Scotiabank Area, allowing Tampa Bay to take a 3-1 lead in the second-round series. Boston’s season could come to a screeching halt Monday night, or it could find new life.
After Saturday’s contest, however, the Black and Gold’s season is on the line. And they have lots to reflect on ahead of Game 5.
Here are some thoughts, observations and takeaways from Wednesday’s game:
— Despite outshooting the Lightning 30-26, the Bruins still struggled to find the back of the net Saturday afternoon. Torey Krug and David Pastrnak had most of the team’s shots with five and six shots against the Bolts, respectively.
Saturday’s game served as a stern reminder that shots on goal don’t necessarily translate into points. And as David Krejci noted, Boston must improve in this area if they want to see their season continue beyond Round 2.
“How many shots did we have today? I don’t even know,” Krejci told reporters during a video conference. “We just have to get the shots through. There’s no excuse for it. Forwards, we have to get to the net, find the shooting lanes. All those things. You know, you work in practice and we have to show it in a game. We have to get better at it.
“I’m not really going to build on anything today. It’s regroup and get ready for next game.”
— Nick Ritchie got a five-minute major for boarding at the tail end of the second period of Saturday’s game. Victor Hedman scored on the man-advantage to give the Lightning a 3-0 lead.
(You can check out a clip of the play here.)
Head coach Bruce Cassidy defended the play after the game, suggesting it simply was an everyday hockey play.
“No, there was no call. He’s finishing a check, it happens all the time,” told reporters. “He played through a player’s shoulder as I saw it. Shoulder to shoulder hard. I don’t know if the explanation was it was late or it was a 225-pound man hits a 170-pound man and that’s why the penalty is called. Like I said, I thought (Cedric) Paquette did the same thing if not worse to (Karson) Kuhlman in the first period. The standard is set, that’s what officials do, they set the standard and the players adjust to it and adapt to it game in and game out. So no, I thought he did a good job, that’s what he’s asked to do, be hard on people, stick up for your teammates, go to the net, score dirty goals, make plays off the wall, all those things. So that hit was part of the job description and he did it. They reversed the call and at the end of the day, it went against us. We want Ritch to be physical, not reckless, and that’s what we thought it was, but it didn’t work out that way.”
— OK, so the Bruins’ season is on life support. It’s definitely not a comfortable position to be in, to say the least, as Boston enters what could be its final game of the 2019-20 season. And considering the B’s were in first place before the NHL paused its season in March due to COVID-19, this certainly isn’t the position the team or fans were hoping to be in at the semifinals.
But Boston still has a chance to turn this series around in Game 5 on Monday. Bruins forward and Weymouth, Mass., native Charlie Coyle offered his simple analysis of the situation of what Boston must embrace if they want to win Game 5.
“It’s all a mentality,” he told reporters. “As Krech said, we have to regroup and focus on one game at a time. People have been in worse situations and come out on top. We just have to take it this one, one game at a time. Focus on that next game. That is all we can control right now. Come back and the mindset is to play a better game. There are some things we can work on and look at, some video. But just the mindset to focus on that next one and get a win.”
— If Boston wants any chance at the Eastern Conference Finals, it’s got a steep hill to climb. And while it’d be the first time the B’s would overcome a 3-1 deficit, it wouldn’t be the first occurrence of a Boston team. The Red Sox have two 3-1 comebacks — including a 3-0 comeback in 2004 — under their belt in the last two decades, with Boston going on to win the World Series both times. If they want to earn those wins, however, it’s going to take an incredible amount of focus and stamina to do so.
So, Cassidy has a special message for the Bruins ahead of the all-important contest.
“Listen, they will be told that the type of game we played today where we’re skating, we had some breakdowns in front of our net early on, we have to correct those, we need to be harder, we need to be more assertive in those areas,” Cassidy said. “Guys that we rely on to be hard defensively, good awareness, checking players get scored on the first goal. We didn’t manage the puck again. It usually starts there. You turn pucks over against Tampa, it starts there. You have to be more assertive with your feet before you move a puck, take some ice. That one came back at us. After that I thought we were better at that to be quite honest.”
— The Bruins have an uphill battle ahead of them if they want to earn a spot in the Eastern Conference Finals. They’ll need to win three straight games to do so, a task rarely accomplished by teams in any league, though it’s certainly not impossible.
Of course, Boston faces several more challenges if it wants to advance another round. If you ask Jake DeBrusk, the B’s biggest challenge is in plain sight.
“The biggest change that we need to make, you look at some of the goals that happened in this series, obviously you have to give them credit, they’ve been burying them,” DeBrusk said. “But we have to execute with the puck. We’ve been playing their game. We played their game the last three and this is the result you’re going to get when you play against a team like that and their style. Our only chance is if we play our game and stick with it.”
