At long last, the Bruins are finally through round-robin play up in Toronto — with the No. 4 B’s set to take on the No. 6 Carolina Hurricanes in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Game 1 is set for Tuesday night at 8 p.m. As we begin our deep dive at the B’s next opponent in Carolina, let’s take a quick look at some telling numbers for key players over the Bruins’ three-game stretch of round-robin play — and what they reveal about the current state of this club going into true postseason play.
64.52: The Bergeron Line’s 5v5 shot share through five games
Surprise, surprise if you've heard this on this site before (especially over the past week) — but the Bruins' top line was actually quite dominant during round-robin play when it came to puck-possession metrics and generating quality looks in the offensive zone. Yes, the rust formed during a months-long pause did lead to an uptick in errant feeds and needless giveaways, but the Bergeron line still managed to tilt the ice significantly in Boston's favor during their three games against the Flyers, Lightning and Capitals.
In the 27:54 of 5v5 ice time that the 63-37-88 line skated together, the Bruins led opponents in shot attempts (40-22), shots on goal (18-10), scoring chances (19-9) and high-danger scoring chances (8-2).
Sunday's loss to Washington might have been the most encouraging showing to date, with the trio much more active on the forecheck and connecting on more of the passes that we've become accustomed to. In total, Boston held an absurd 21-4 edge in shot attempts against the Caps during the Bergeron line's 8:55 of 5v5 ice time.
(Photo by Mark Blinch/NHLI via Getty Images)
Bruins
6 telling stats from Bruins’ performances during round-robin play
Charlie McAvoy
15.79: The Kuraly Line's offensive zone faceoff percentage during round-robin play
Sean Kuraly, Joakim Nordstrom
Chris Wagner
42.86: Zdeno Chara's shot share through three games
Zdeno Chara —
T.J. Oshie's
Charlie McAvoy
4.68:
Bruins' expected goals per 60 minutes rate on the power play
5: The number of hits Connor Clifton dished out in his Phase 4 debut Sunday
Cassidy has plenty of options to pick from when it comes to selecting
Matt Grzelcyk’s
regular partner on Boston’s third defensive pairing this postseason. It would appear as though the gig is
Jeremy Lauzon’s
to lose. Even if he may not be flashy, Lauzon ran with the role during the regular season, and complemented Grzelcyk’s quick-skating style with a dependable, stingy game in Boston’s own zone.
Still, don’t sleep on
Connor Clifton
, who served a similar role in as Boston’s sixth defensemen for a majority of Boston’s run to the Stanley Cup Final last spring. Injuries might have derailed the Quinnipiac product’s sophomore season, but when he’s engaged and assertive, “Cliffy Hockey” often makes his presence felt whenever he hops over the boards.
A third pairing of Lauzon-Clifton was far from perfect during Sunday’s loss to the Capitals (
), but Clifton did his best to make an impression — landing a team-high five hits in his 15:39 of ice time. If Lauzon stumbles out the gate against the relentless Carolina club, Clifton could draw back into the lineup.
“We’ll look at it closer, but yeah, Cliffy is a guy that is not afraid of the moment,” Cassidy said. “It keeps lefty, righty. It’s a smaller pair with him and Grizz, but we saw it last year. It played well at times against good teams so we are certainly not afraid of that look. We can certainly move people around to balance the size aspect.
“I guess to answer your question, I don’t know yet if it’s going to be Lauzon, Clifton –
Johnny Moore
is another guy that we know can play. We looked for the balance in size with the Griz with the Lauzon pairing. I think Jeremy has been ok but like when he first came to us, some repetitions for the bigger guy take time. So do we have that luxury or not? We’ll have to make that decision in the next few days.”
3: Individual high-danger chances generated by Anders Bjork
Jake DeBrusk
Anders Bjork
Charlie Coyle's
"Bjork was in a couple times. That one sequence of plays, (Nick Ritchie) has two looks, Washington defenseman was down on the ice. So, next time will he take the extra second and get it up or will it go in the first time? I don’t know.Those are some pretty good looks," Cassidy said of the Coyle line's play on Sunday. "I thought defensively they didn’t get into a lot of trouble. is good at holding pucks down low, so cycle play should be pretty good once him and Charlie get their sort of chemistry down. I was fine with them. We just didn’t finish."
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