Home-ice advantage has been one of the key factors for the Boston Bruins and the Carolina Hurricanes, and that was made all the more evident after Tuesday's Game 5.
The Hurricanes defeated the Bruins 5-1 at PNC Arena to take a 3-2 series lead in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The home team has won each game of the series. Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy gave his assessment of what makes the Hurricanes so much different in Carolina.
"Most teams feed off their home crowd, especially playoff time, and they're still a younger group, so sometimes that affects even more," Cassidy said, per team-provided audio. "I think they're good no matter where they play, to be honest with you. They came into our building earlier this year and showed us that.
"We were the better team, I thought, at home, not taking away anything of our wins. We just need something good to happen earlier when we start well. It hasn't. They're a good team, and they feed off the energy here and most teams would. And we did the same thing in Boston, we fed off our crowd a lot. It certainly gives you a little extra juice."
Heading back to Boston for Game 6 should bode well for the Bruins, but they aren't willing to look ahead until business gets done.
"They feed off their crowd well. They play well," Charlie McAvoy said, per team-provided audio. "It seems like they've had our number here, but we're able to go home, and we have to take care of Game 6 before we even look to coming back here."
Despite the availability of the Bruins defenseman, the Hurricanes still had their way with Boston. Assistant captain Brad Marchand explained why it's difficult to play at PNC Arena as Boston has been outscored, 14-5, on the road in the postseason.
"It's a tough building to play in," Marchand said, per team-provided audio. "They feed a lot on the emotion they get from the crowd, and they enjoy playing here. You can see it in their game, the way they are with the fans and everything. You can see they enjoy playing in this building.
"They feed off of that energy. They have pretty good matchups at home, that all plays a part, but they're a good team. You can't discredit them. They play extremely hard. They play fast. We knew it was gonna be a tough series. They're a great team. They're competing hard out there so gotta give them some credit."
Game 6 of Bruins-Hurricanes will be played on Thursday at TD Garden. Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET, and NESN will have full coverage of the game, including an hour of pregame.
