Let’s be frank here: Nathan Horton is not walking through that door. Jarome Iginla isn’t walking through that door.
No, if the Bruins are going to revive their dormant second line and find an offensive conduit to pair next to David Krejci this postseason, Bruce Cassidy and his coaching are going to have to make do with what they have currently have on this roster.
So far, the results so far in Phase 4 — following what has been a recurring trend all season — have not yielded much in terms of encouragement.
Whether it be Jake DeBrusk, Nick Ritchie or Karson Kuhlman, the B’s have been hampered by a dormant top-six unit, with the B’s out-attempted (29-19), outshot (18-10) and outscored (1-0) in Krejci’s 26:46 of 5v5 ice time so far during round-robin play.
But come Sunday, the Bruins are expected to roll out their ace in the hole — or, well, that was the expectation going into Ondrej Kase’s arrival in Boston.
A speedy winger that’s at his best when frequently peppering the net, Kase is ideally exactly what a team like Boston is looking for in a viable top-six winger, especially when paired next to a playmaker of Krejci’s caliber.
The only problem? Boston hasn’t exactly been afforded a long look at their shiny new weapon up front.
Whether it be due to the NHL’s months-long pause, or the valuable time lost in Phases 3 & 4 due to Kase’s “unfit to participate” designation, Kase is still quite the unknown when it comes to what to expect from the Czech product on the ice, especially when logging minutes next to the likes of Krejci or even Charlie Coyle.
And yet, even with just six games of experience under his belt with Boston — that last outing coming back on March 10 — the onus now falls on Kase to serve as Boston's last great shot at getting that second line rolling again.
No pressure, bud.
Even with the lack of in-game reps due to his delayed return to the ice during Phases 3 & 4, Cassidy believes that a player of Kase's profile should be able to shake the rust off in short order.
“He looks good. He’s making some plays. He’s got some jump,” Cassidy said. “I think the first three days were tough on him for obvious reasons. Now he’s been at it, probably – I don’t want to speak out of turn — but I’ll say about a full week here. It seems a little more natural, just with everything he does. He’s got quick hands. My expectation is he’ll have lots of energy. He’ll fight the puck a little like all our guys did early on their first game back because of the speed of the game that is going on around them. You just can’t replicate that."
Even if Kase's profile as a top-six winger is largely a byproduct of his quick hands and impressive speed, the 24-year-old winger's willingness to fire shot after shot in on net might be the most welcome addition to a second line that has spent much of the last two games gripping their sticks far too often.
In his six games with Boston, Kase only managed to land six shots on net, but the winger had a knack for piling on attempts with his previous club in Anaheim. Over the previous two seasons, Kase averaged an impressive 10.54 individual shots per 60 minutes — a mark above top players like Nathan MacKinnon (10.53) and Patrice Bergeron (9.93).
Even if not all of these attempts are coming from high-danger spots, Kase's willingness to let pucks fly in transition or from outside of Grade-A ice is at least a step in the right direction for a slumping B's offense that has struggled to generate consistent looks in the O-zone so far up in Toronto.
(Kase, who impressed in his short time with Boston so far in terms of pushing the puck through the neutral zone, makes his presence felt on this sequence — breaking into Tampa's zone and firing in a pair of shots against Andrei Vasilevskiy).
His time in Boston hasn't gotten off to an ideal start, to say the least, but Boston still has high hopes that Kase will provide the antidote needed to cure Boston's ailing middle-six offense.
“The trade was made for that purpose originally, to see how he fit with Krejci,” Cassidy said of Kase on Wednesday. “We know we can drop Pasta down, but then who goes up? It would be nice if Ondrej and David got some chemistry, a guy that likes to make plays, to a guy that likes to shoot. They can work one-timers because they shoot the same way. That was the decision originally. It just hasn’t worked out that way because of the pause obviously and Ondrej’s setback. That’s what we want it to look like."
Is he as a sure a bet as a player like Iginla or Horton when it comes to cashing in on Krejci's feeds? Come on now. But given what we've seen so far from the rest of Boston's regular wingers, a healthy and motivated Kase gives Boston its best chance at giving that second line any sort of scoring punch.
"I anticipate he’ll get some shots. He’s been doing that in practice," Cassidy said of Kase. "He thinks shot first so we could use some of that right now. ... We need him to play. He’s going to go over the boards when it's his turn and hopefully like I said, he can pick it up quick because he’s missed some time. We know that. But he is young. Some of the younger guys get it back quicker. We have every intention of using him in game one. We have to see where he’s at Sunday and hopefully he takes advantage of the minutes he’s given and be ready to go."
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After missing Friday's skate due to "unfit to participate" designations, Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci and Jaroslav Halak were all back on the ice at the Ford Performance Centre in Toronto on Saturday afternoon. Here's a look at the Bruins' lines from their latest practice:
Marchand – Bergeron – Pastrnak
DeBrusk/Kuhlman – Krejci – Kase
Ritchie – Coyle – Bjork
Nordstrom – Kuraly/Lindholm – Wagner
Chara – McAvoy
Krug – Carlo
Grzelcyk – Lauzon
Moore – Clifton
Rask
Halak
Speaking after practice, Cassidy noted that Connor Clifton will draw into the lineup on Sunday against Washington, with Matt Grzelcyk given a "maintenance day off." Tuukka Rask is expected to start and play the whole game, while Jake DeBrusk will be back at left wing on Krejci's line.
Here is the expected lineup for Sunday's matinee:
Marchand – Bergeron – Pastrnak
DeBrusk – Krejci – Kase
Ritchie – Coyle – Bjork
Nordstrom – Kuraly – Wagner
Chara – McAvoy
Krug – Carlo
Lauzon — Clifton
Rask
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Islanders or Hurricanes?
- Beat the Capitals — take the No. 3 seed, and take on the No. 7 Islanders in the next round.
- Lose to the Capitals — settle for the No. 4 seed, and battle the No. 6 Hurricanes in the next round.
After letting the top seed in the East slip through their fingers thanks to a sluggish start in round-robin play, the Bruins won't be able to ease themselves into playoff action against the No. 12 seed Canadiens, or, had they fallen to the No. 2 seed, perhaps a team like the No. 8 Maple Leafs. (Yes, hats off to Toronto for winning that absurd comeback against Columbus on Friday, but that D corps is still BRUTAL).
Now, granted, if Boston gets back up to speed and returns to the high level of play that helped them secure a Presidents' Trophy months earlier, Cassidy's club should be considered favorites in either of their potential matchups against the Islanders or 'Canes. But if Boston had a choice between its next two opponents, it'd have to be New York — and it shouldn't be particularly close.
At a quick glance, the Islanders possess the type of team DNA that often bodes well for a club in line for a deep playoff run. With Barry Trotz at the helm, New York has evolved into a stingy, tenacious club that excels at packing things in and negating quality shots — with the Isles ranking ninth in the league in goals against per game (2.79). New York's defensive efforts were on full display during Week 1 of Phase 4 play, with Trotz's club de-clawing a Florida Panthers offense that ranked sixth in total offense during the regular season.
Even with key cogs up front like Jonathan Huberdeau and Aleksander Barkov, Florida only managed to tally seven goals during its four-game series against the Islanders, averaging just under shots on goal per contest. Add in an encouraging showing in the clinching game from New York's top offensive weapon in Mathew Barzal (1 goal, 1 assist in 21:33 of TOI), and the Islanders have enough top-six talent to support its taut defensive structure.
But when it comes to head-to-head matchups against Boston, the Islanders' defensive system has been about as reliable as an LIRR train out to Hempstead (not speaking from experience, of course).
Since Trotz has taken over, the Bruins have posted a record of 5-0-1 against the Islanders, averaging a little over three goals per game in those six outings. In particular, the Islanders, like many other clubs, don't possess a true matchup ace (such as a Sean Couturier, Anthony Cirelli, etc.) that can be trusted with negating Boston's top line of Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak — with the trio combining for seven goals and eight assists against New York since the start of the 2018-19 campaign.
Boston's last meeting against the Islanders — a 4-0 cakewalk in New York back on Feb. 29 — was an example of Boston playing to its strengths against this club, with Boston holding a 3-0 edge in 5v5 goals scored during the Bergeron line's 10:18 of ice time together. Add in a 25-save shutout from Tuukka Rask (who boasts a .937 save percentage in 24 career games against New York), and Boston should be feeling pretty comfortable if it indeed draws the Isles in the next round.
When sizing up the Hurricanes, it's evident that this club (like EVERY other team in this playoff bracket) has some faults with their roster. Yes, Carolina absolutely pantsed the Rangers during the Qualifying Round, trailing for just 3:06 of its three-game sweep over the Blueshirts, but the goalie tandem of Petr Mrazek and old friend James Reimer doesn't exactly inspire much confidence — especially given that Boston tallied 10 goals (!) against Mrazek over two games (good for a whopping .808 save percentage) during last year's Eastern Conference Final.
Still, this is not the same club that Boston trampled over in a four-game sweep last May.
Carolina's top line of Andrei Svechnikov-Sebastian Aho-Teuvo Teravainen very well could be the most underrated forward trio in the NHL, with Aho demolishing the Rangers with eight points in three playoff games up in the bubble. Svechnikov, the No. 2 overall pack in the 2018 NHL Draft, has also come a long way from the green rookie that was largely negated during last year's postseason meeting with Boston. The Russian import tallied 61 points in 68 games in his sophomore campaign, while also recording the first playoff hat trick in Hurricanes/Whalers history during Game 2 against New York.
But Carolina is far from a top-heavy unit as far as offense goes. When they're playing to their strengths, Rod Brind'Amour's 'Canes are a high-tempo, suffocating group that love to pressure up high and pepper the net as soon as they cross over the offensive blue line (33.3 shots per game - 3rd in NHL). That swarming mentality could cause a few issues for a team like the Bruins that tend to cycle the puck and operate up high on the power play, which could lead to a number of intercepted feeds and odd-man rushes if Boston lets go of a few errant feeds up high.
That swarming style of play — combined with the weapons present up front and on the blue line — is one of the reasons why Carolina is one of the top special-teams clubs in the league, ranking fourth in penalty kill percentage (84.0% - just behind Boston's 84.3%) and eighth in power-play percentage at 22.3%.
Add in a D corps anchored by another tremendously undervalued star in Jaccob Slavin, deadline pickups in Sami Vatanen and Brady Skjei, and expected return of an injured Dougie Hamilton next round — and this Carolina team can beat you in a number of ways.