In an airtight series in which all three games between the Bruins and Blue Jackets have been decided by a single goal — Sergei Bobrovsky has undoubtedly served as Columbus’ trump card.
The two-time Vezina winner put another emphatic stamp on a dominant 2019 playoff run during the Blue Jackets’ 2-1 win over the B’s on Tuesday night in Columbus. Turning aside 36 of the 37 shots that came his way, Bobrovsky once again stood as the difference for the Jackets — with the netminder posting a .956 save percentage over his last two outings.
And yet, just minutes after another Bobrovsky masterpiece helped hand Columbus a 2-1 edge in its best-of-seven series with Boston, many in Boston’s locker room seemed rather optimistic about their chances of finally finding twine against the Jackets’ goalie.
“The secondary saves that he's making are very impressive,” Brandon Carlo said postgame. “But he's definitely going to crack at some point. I have a lot of faith that we're going to start putting pucks past him here pretty soon. We've had some great opportunities today throughout all three periods to put pucks behind him. Credit to him today, but overall, I don't think it's going to last.”
Glancing over the final stat sheet from Tuesday’s loss could corroborate Carlo’s claims. Only two Bruins (Carlo and Marcus Johansson) failed to land a single puck in against Bobrovsky in what was a 37-shot barrage for Boston — while three other attempts either clanged off the post and deflected off the crossbar.
“Other nights, those are in,”
David Pastrnak
said. “Some nights, just bouncing around — tough luck. They played overall a strong defensive game. Just have to find a way to create more and score."
Even with their 37 shots on goal, Boston managed to only generate seven high-danger scoring chances all night — a byproduct of having so many shots coming from outside of Grade-A areas, as seen in the heat map from Game 3.
While Cassidy noted postgame that possessing the puck at the blue line will be key in order to get the Blue Jackets bodies out of shooting lanes, firing low-danger shots from said areas along the blue line — rather than feeding the puck up into the O-zone — is asking for trouble against a Jackets team that, like most Tortorella clubs, excel at blocking shots.
It’s easier said than done when you have bodies like
Seth Jones
and
David Savard
standing between you and the slot, but Boston’s high-danger rates have plummeted as of late.
For the ninth time out of Boston’s 10 postseason games, a line featuring both
Patrice Bergeron
and
Brad Marchand
failed to generate a single 5v5 goal — a startling development for a duo that generated 44 5v5 tallies in 729:13 of TOI during the regular season.
While a slumping
David Pastrnak
started Game 3 on a line with
Charlie Coyle
and
Marcus Johansson
, the bottom-six demotion did not last — as
Bruce Cassidy
once again reunited his top line in the third period with the B’s looking for a final push against Bobrovsky.
It did not come, especially from the 63-37-88 line. In total, that line finished with 4:10 of 5v5 TOI together — and despite landing five shots in against Bobrovsky, generated zero high-danger looks in the process. Down the other end of the ice, the Blue Jackets managed to compile three high-danger chances against
Tuukka Rask
during the same stretch of time.
The power play has served as Boston’s Get Out of Jail Free Card for most of the 2018-19 campaign, with a third-ranked man advantage often offsetting any lulls found during 5v5 play. Boston’s season very well could still be alive thanks to the power play — as the B’s stayed alive in a do-or-die Game 6 in Toronto thanks to a pair of first-period strikes during 5v4 play.
But even with the extra ice — and one less Jackets skater to worry about — Boston’s power play has failed to provide much of an advantage when it comes to making Bobrovsky work. So far this series, Boston has only cashed in on one of its 10 stints on the power play, generating just four total shots on goal in its last 8:40 of TOI with a Blue Jacket in the sin bin.
Pastrnak, held without a shot on goal on the power play for the last 5:17 of 5v4 TOI, is more focused on the big picture than his own personal struggles.
“I'm just trying to stay with it and just trying to battle ... We lost two games in a row,” Pastrnak said. “It's tough. I don't want to really talk about myself. It's a team sport. I'm not focusing on if I score a goal or not. There's a lot of stuff you can do to help a team. I'm doing my best."
But if the positive sentiments expressed postgame on Tuesday are going to manifest into actual pucks past Bobrovsky — Pastrnak and others are going to have to start pulling their weight.
Bobrovsky has been fantastic all series, no doubt. But the Bruins aren’t exactly making things difficult for him, especially with Boston’s top scorers still struggling to put the pieces together.
