After the NHL opted to stop play on Thursday and Friday, the Eastern Conference Semifinals are set to resume on Saturday — with Game 4 between the Bruins and Lightning scheduled for noon.
Here is the full schedule for the best-of-seven series, which currently has Tampa holding a 2-1 edge.
Game 4: Saturday, August 29 at 12 pm ET (NBC, 98.5)
Game 5: Monday, August 31 at 7 pm ET (NBCSN, 98.5)
Game 6: Wednesday, September 2 at TBD (TBD)
Game 7: Thursday, September 3 at TBD (TBD)
With a pivotal Game 4 hours away, here’s a look at what Bruce Cassidy’s club needs to do to get back on track after a blowout loss on Wednesday night.
Accounting for a Nikita Kucherov on a revamped Tampa power play
On paper, there weren’t a whole lot of areas in which Boston was going to have a decisive edge in this heavyweight series against Tampa. One wrinkle, however, was Boston's proficiency on special-teams play — whether it be with its new overloaded top power-play unit or on a PK that entered Game 3 against the Bolts with an 88.5% success rate this postseason (three goals allowed on 26 opposing power-play bids).
Let's face it, a number of things got away from the Bruins in Game 3 on Wednesday night, but one of the reasons why Tampa was able to bury Boston was thanks to its revitalized man advantage — which lit the lamp on three of its first four attempts to put the Bruins in a hole it could not climb out of.
A mid-series switch appears to have helped Tampa's man-advantage break out of an 0-for-16 slump to open postseason play, as Jon Cooper opted to switch Nikita Kucherov over from the right circle to a much more active role on the left side — his forehand — as a facilitator for the rest of his teammates.
The switch paid off during Wednesday's rout, with Kucherov closing out the win with four points, with three of those tallies on the power play.
"They switched Kucherov to his forehand side, so that changes where pucks are going, where they're going to be dangerous from, obviously now with the right-handed bumper it goes up top, it goes to the other side to (Ondrej) Palat, so our shot blockers have to be better aligned there. You're going to overplay certain areas. He does a good job. He’s a good player, power play, five on five, so he’s going to make plays. So where we probably didn't do a good enough job is dictating where the shots come from."
Tampa's second power play tally of the evening — a Mikhail Sergachev blast from the high slot — was a byproduct of a B's power play attempting to clog up Grade-A ice but not pressuring the puck handler in Kucherov, who, if given the time and space, will almost certainly make you pay.
Stats and graphs via Natural Stat Trick and Sean Tierney.