With the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs finally coming to a dramatic close, the full schedule for the Bruins’ upcoming second-round series against the Columbus Blue Jackets was finally announced late Wednesday night.
Despite just wrapping up its seven-game bout against the Maple Leafs, Boston won’t have much of a respite going forward — with Game 1 against Columbus set for Thursday night at TD Garden.
Boston won’t have consecutive off days until the series shifts over to Columbus — with no games scheduled for Sunday and Monday next week before Game 3 gets underway at Nationwide Arena on Tuesday.
Here’s the full schedule for the Bruins-Blue Jackets series, as well as the remaining second-round matchups:
BSJ Analysis
In a perfect world, the Bruins would have ideally liked to have started this series on Friday — giving them at least one rest day and a practice day before jumping into the next round of competition. But with a concert scheduled at TD Garden on Sunday, a Friday-to-Sunday start was taken off the table for the B’s.
“That’s not up to me and our players accept — if you asked me, my honest answer would be, of course,” Don Sweeney said when asked if he wanted a bit more of a gap between series. “I’d like a little more turnaround time, but maybe they would say, you know, maybe you end your series early and you get turnaround time. So, it’s not something we control or worry about. Coaches are preparing. We’re preparing for what we need to do, players, staff, move forward.”
While the B’s are jumping right into the fire against a rested Columbus club that hasn’t played in a game since all the way back on April 16 — it doesn’t seem like Boston will be bemoaning the current playoff picture any time soon.
Wednesday’s schedule release was prompted by the conclusion of the Capitals-Hurricanes series — with Brock McGinn scoring in double overtime to lift Carolina past the defending Stanley Cup Champions in Game 7.
CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!?! pic.twitter.com/ipJ6bPj8uI
— Carolina Hurricanes (@NHLCanes) April 25, 2019