RALEIGH, N.C. — Everything you need to know from the Bruins’ 4-0 win over the Hurricanes in a series-clinching Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Final, with BSJ insight and analysis:
Box Score
TWO TAKEAWAYS
The Hurricanes never had a chance: Even with Zdeno Chara ruled out in a series-clinching scenario due to an undisclosed injury, the Bruins — as they’ve done throughout the Eastern Conference Final — didn’t flinch one bit.
Two days after the Hurricanes landed 20 shots on goal against Tuukka Rask in a dominant opening period, the wind was taken out of the ‘Canes’ sails in a win-or-go-home situation, with the Canes’ generating just one high-danger scoring chance in all situations during the opening stanza.
Things didn’t get much better in the following period. Even without Chara and a top pairing with an average age of 23, Boston’s D corps shut down Carolina in its own building — with the Hurricanes going 14:00 without a shot on goal against Rask as part of a period in which the “Bunch of Jerks” only managed to land four pucks in on net.
Add in another evening in which special teams play was tiled in favor of Boston (2-for-3 on the power play and 2-for-2 on the penalty kill) — and Carolina simply ran right into a buzzsaw in the Eastern Conference Final — as Boston completed the sweep with a dominant 4-0 victory in Game 4.
The better team clearly dominated over the past week — and now the Bruins have punched their ticket to the Stanley Cup Final for the third time in nine years. Just a suffocating performance from a Bruins squad that has now won seven straight games this postseason.
Whoever the foe is, Boston is poised to hoist Lord Stanley’s Cup
After having just one day off in between a seven-game slugfest with the Maple Leafs and a conference semifinal bout with Blue Jackets, the Eastern Conference Champions finally have a bit of a window to lick their wounds, with the San Jose Sharks and St. Louis Blues still duking it out in the Western Conference Final.
Some R&R will be key for banged-up bodies like Chara, who Bruce Cassidy said will likely be ready to go for the next round. However, an extended break always brings the risk of rust forming during a long playoff campaign. Still, regardless of who Boston battles for the right to hoist Lord Stanley’s Cup, they have to be considered the favorites to get the job done.
It won’t be easy. San Jose has a wealth of offensive weapons in its arsenal — and if there’s one player that could find a way to pot a few past Rask, it's
Logan Couture
(14 goals this postseason). The Blues, once in the cellar of the Western Conference standings, now stand as the last Cinderella remaining in the bracket, and are more than willing to throw their weight around.
But whatever the Western Conference is set to throw at Boston, Cassidy's
club is poised to keep this freight train rolling. Whether it’s been an arduous preseason trip to China, a decimated blue line in November and more — this Bruins team is battle-tested, resilient and gelling at the perfect time.
The Cup is theirs to lose.
FOUR UP
Bergeron Line:
Patrice Bergeron picked a pretty good time to cash in on his first 5v5 goal of the postseason, eh? After tallying just six total points through the first three games of the ECF, Bergeron and Boston’s top line finally exploded on Thursday night — combining for four goals and eight total points in the victory. Carolina, as was the case for most of the series, simply had no answer.
Tuukka Rask:
Ho hum, another spot on this list for Boston’s best player during this Cup run. Rask was fantastic in net once again — stopping all 24 shots that came his way en route to his second shutout of the postseason. Rask has now won seven straight games — becoming just the second Bruins netminder to post a win streak of 7+ in the postseason, joining
Gerry Cheevers,
who won 10 straight games during Boston’s march to a Stanley Cup title in 1970.
Power Play:
When Boston needed to break the Hurricanes for good, it cashed in on its power play once again — going 2-for-3 on the night and 7-for-15 over the whole series. Going into the Cup Final, Boston leads all NHL teams with a 34.0 percent success rate on the man advantage — with their 17 power-play goals good for fourth all-time in franchise history in terms of most power-play tallies in a single postseason.
McAvoy-Grzelcyk Pairing:
With Chara out, Matt Grzelcyk and Charlie McAvoy more than held their own on Boston’s top D pairing, posting a 60.00 CF% and holding a 5-3 edge in shots on goal. In the 8:04 of 5v5 TOI in which that duo was out on the ice, Boston generated three high-danger scoring chances. Carolina? Zero.
TWO DOWN
Overpassing:
While Boston’s power play did damage against the ‘Canes in the middle stanza, the B’s spent most of the opening 20 minutes coughing up quality looks against
Curtis McElhinney.
The Bergeron line in particular, could have made this a 2-0 game going into the first intermission. Eventually, they got going — as we all know.
FOURTH LINE:
On a night in which Carolina only generated 11 total scoring chances during 5v5 play, seven of them were during the 9:06 of 5v5 TOI in which the Nordstrom-Kuraly-Acciari line was called upon. Still, with zero faceoffs taken in the offensive zone, that trio held its own despite spending most of its shifts in its own end.
PLAY OF THE GAME
Play with fire, you’re going to get burned. A fantastic passing sequence from Boston’s go-to options on its top power-play unit.
PARTING THOUGHTS
Plenty of
loud
Bruins fans brought their own “Storm Surge” to PNC Arena on Thursday night. So much for a home-ice advantage.
What say you,
Brad Marchand
?
LOOKING AHEAD
The Bruins now advance to their third Stanley Cup Final in nine years, with a matchup against the Blues or Sharks awaiting them. No schedule has been announced for the fourth and final round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, with San Jose holding a 2-1 edge over St. Louis so far in the Western Conference Final.
