With the second round of the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs set to begin soon, here is a look at 10 questions that could decide this best-of-seven series between the Bruins and Lightning, along with other predictions and preview content:
No. 2 Tampa Bay Lightning vs. No. 4 Boston Bruins
Schedule:
Game 1 - Sunday at 8 p.m.
Game 2 - Tuesday at 7 p.m.
Game 3 - Wednesday at 8 p.m.
Game 4 - Friday at 7:30 p.m.
Game 5 - Sunday (8/30) at TBD
Game 6 - Tuesday (9/1) at TBD
Game 7 - Wednesday (9/2) at TBD
Lightning Record: 43-21-6 (92 points — 2nd in Atlantic Division)
Tampa Bay Team Stats:
Goals Per Game: 3.47 (1st in NHL)
Goals Against Per Game: 2.77 (8th in NHL)
Power-play Percentage: 23.1 (5th in NHL)
Penalty Kill: 81.4 (14th in NHL)
PROJECTED LINES
BOSTON
Brad Marchand — Patrice Bergeron — David Pastrnak
Jake DeBrusk — David Krejci — Ondrej Kase
Sean Kuraly — Charlie Coyle — Jack Studnicka
Joakim Nordstrom — Par Lindholm — Chris Wagner
Zdeno Chara — Charlie McAvoy
Torey Krug — Brandon Carlo
Matt Grzelcyk — Jeremy Lauzon
Jaroslav Halak
Dan Vladar
TAMPA BAY
Ondrej Palat - Brayden Point - Nikita Kucherov
Alex Killorn - Anthony Cirelli - Tyler Johnson
Barclay Goodrow - Yanni Gourde - Blake Coleman
Cedric Paquette - Carter Verhaeghe - Patrick Maroon
Ryan McDonagh - Erik Cernak
Mikhail Sergachev - Kevin Shattenkirk
Victor Hedman - Zach Bogosian
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Curtis McElhinney
10 KEY QUESTIONS
Could David Krejci’s strong play alter Boston’s top-power play unit?
Despite some early struggles, Boston’s potent power-play managed to right the ship against Carolina in the first round – with the Bruins cashing in on five of their 19 bids on the man advantage.
Not bad, considering Boston was without its top power-play weapon in
David Pastrnak
for three of those games, while the Carolina PK is impressive in its own right as the fourth-ranked unit during regular-season play.
But during Wednesday’s clinching win over Carolina,
Bruce Cassidy
added a new wrinkle to his top power-play grouping.
For years now, Boston’s go-to unit on the power play has been the same cast of characters —
Patrice Bergeron
at the bumper,
Torey Krug
at the point,
Brad Marchand
at the half-wall, Pastrnak at the left elbow and one of
Jake DeBrusk/Charlie Coyle
at the netfront.
The strong play of
David Krejci
so far this postseason has changed that — with Cassidy slotting Krejci over at the left elbow, pushing Pastrnak to the half hall and moving Marchand into the netfront spot.
The move paid off, with Krejci potting home a puck that bounced off of Pastrnak’s leg and settled down in the crease at 15:20 in the second period of Wednesday’s game. Minutes later, he recorded a secondary assist on Bergeron’s power-play strike while operating at the point.
“
Well he’s playing really well, really motivated, making good plays," Cassidy said of Krejci moving to the top power-play unit. "I think having discussions with him and Marchy — Krech likes that elbow where Pasta is, so you got to put him on the other one, it’s a different look for him. And then March moves off his elbow into the netfront where you going to take a little more of a pounding, so they had to be willing to do that. I mean we had a pretty good power play as it is the other way, but this is a way to get Krech more involved and then with Pasta not having a lot of reps I think you saw the puck move around to the other side a little bit more because those guys are more into the game flow of things.
"So that was the other reason. Pasta certainly did his job on it, got to the front of the net, couple of good shots, obviously picked up a couple helpers on it, made some good plays. So that was a part of the game we were hoping he’d get back quickly, his hands, and he’s going to need to get his legs under him and his battle level up. So that was the reasoning behind the power play, those guys were all amenable to being in one group and it worked out for us."
Can the fourth line continue to neutralize Kucherov and Co.?
Sean Kuraly
Charlie Coyle's
Chris Wagner
Joakim Nordstrom
Nikita Kucherov
Brayden Point
(Quite the dichotomy in event maps between Kucherov *top* and Kuraly *bottom* in their meeting back on March 7 in Boston. While Boston came up short in this matchup, Kuraly and his line thrived in their role of limiting Kucherov and Tampa's top line, scoring a goal and out-attempting the Bolts, 11-5, in 5:46 of 5v5 ice time).
Can Anthony Cirelli
shut down one of Boston's top-six lines?
Jon Cooper,
Jaroslav Halak.
David Krejci
Jake DeBrusk
Ondrej Kase
Anthony Cirelli
Points/60 > 2.21
Time on ice per game > 75th percentile
Relative Corsi > 40th percentile
Relative Dangerous Fenwick > 40th percentile
(For reference on
Micah Blake McCurdy
’s individual impact charts via
— On the offensive side of things, you’d want to see a player providing positive numbers — with the red blobs signifying where the team is generating a majority of their shots from whenever said player is on the ice. Defensively, negative numbers are a sign that a team is snuffing out opposing scoring chances whenever said player is on the ice. As such, the blue blobs represent where the opposition’s shots aren’t regularly coming from. As seen above, opponents are generating fewer shots, especially around Grade-A ice, when Cirelli is on the ice).
Does Nick Ritchie factor into this matchup against a heavier Tampa team?
Patrick Maroon, Barclay Goodrow
Blake Coleman
Sean Kuraly
Nick Ritchie
Victor) Hedman
(Mikhail) Sergachev
(Zach) Bogosian
(Erik) Cernak
Anders) Bjork
Jack (Studnicka)
(Sean) Kuraly
Could we see more of a Chara-Clifton pairing?
Zdeno Chara
Charlie McAvoy
Matt Grzelcyk
Connor Clifton
Shot attempts: 16-5
Shots on goal: 8-2
Goals scored: 2-0
Scoring chance: 10-1
Cam Neely
Can Halak hold off the Bolts' imposing offense?
Andrei Vasilevskiy.
Which third line can land the knockout punch?
Victor Hedman
Ryan McDonagh
(Leave the highlight-reel goals for Kucherov and Co. The Goodrow-Gourde-Coleman generates most of its looks off of a heavy forecheck and piling up guys in front for rebound opportunities and tipped shots.)
Anders Bjork
Jack Studnicka,
Will Steven Stamkos return for Tampa?
Steven Stamkos
How will teams handle this accelerated schedule?
Tuukka Rask
Dan Vladar
Prediction:
