Ryan: How the Bruins' D corps hung in the ring and orchestrated a defensive clinic vs potent Avalanche

The unenviable task of trying to slow down a fearsome Colorado Avalanche offense is a bit like trying to survive one round against Mike Tyson in his prime.

On paper, there might be a book out on him when it comes to his strengths/weaknesses. Perhaps there’s a tell that’s been cataloged to let you know when to duck the assured destruction that comes with a right hook.  

But in practice, it’s a hell of a lot harder to stay off the mat when the bell rings and it’s just you in the ring with such a punishing juggernaut.

As Tyson once said: “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth”.  

And even the best-laid plans tend to crumble in short order when it comes to trying to tread water against an Avs team that can bury you in a hurry. 

Sure, Bruce Cassidy can go through the usual spiel of what Boston needs to do to slow Colorado down: Keep them to the outside, stack the blue line to prevent easy entries, throw some weight around on the forecheck.

But that’s easier said than done when Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar are turning on the afterburners through the neutral zone, Mikko Rantanen is playing keep-away down low and Nazem Kadri is finding soft ice around the slot.

Granted, it’s far from an impossible undertaking, as the B’s themselves showcased for the first 50 minutes of what was an eventual disheartening OT loss to the Avs way back on Jan. 26.  

“Over there, we played a great 50 minutes of hockey,” David Pastrnak said. “Sometimes in hockey, it takes one little bounce. I think they had nothing all game and then one little bounce got them back in the game — and that kind of put us back on our heels. But we knew we played a great hockey game against them. … We knew we can play these guys.”

And in Monday’s rematch, it was Boston that delivered the knockout blow. 

For as much as Boston’s bottled-up offense finally breaking through might steal some of the headlines following the B’s statement 5-1 victory over the Avs on Monday afternoon, it was a defensive masterclass that allowed Cassidy’s club to snuff out any sort of O-zone spark from one of the top teams in the NHL.

Boston might have buried the multiple Grade-A chances that it manufactured in front of Darcy Kuemper and the heart of Colorado’s defense, but MacKinnon, Makar and Co. found no such salvation down the other end of the ice.

For the Avs, it wasn’t a matter of not burying looks — it was the fact that there were no looks to cash in on at all. 

By the end of the matinee contest, the Bruins racked up 13 high-danger scoring chances against Colorado during 5v5 play. The Avs? Just four, with Boston’s defensive structure and layers preventing players like Makar from getting going in transition.

With sparkplugs like Makar contained, Colorado was unable to catch Boston on its heels for most of the afternoon, allowing the Bruins to avoid those dangerous situations off the rush where a proven Colorado sniper is afforded a quality chance in Grade-A ice. 

"I thought we did a good job up there the last time to the last 10 minutes, to be honest with you,” Cassidy said of his team’s defensive structure. “If you're patient in the neutral zone and work and force them to get through numbers and sticks and layers, maybe they'll get impatient or force them to turn it into a forechecking game.

“And you got to be good on the breakout, which our D was much better tonight than they were — and the forward support goes along with that — then we were on Long Island and in Ottawa, so that's part of it as well.”

(A good example of Boston’s defensive success - this time against Colorado’s top line + Makar. Good on Frederic for knocking Makar off the puck up high, while Brandon Carlo later does a good job of keeping Rantanen to the outside after they re-enter the zone.)

But Boston’s strong effort was not just limited to keeping Colorado’s top weapons in check. Of Boston’s five goals, four were assisted by a d-man, with Charlie McAvoy, Matt Grzelcyk and Brandon Carlo all recording helpers by way of assertive play beyond the offensive blue line.

As we noted in our dissection of Boston’s ugly regulation loss to the Islanders, more playmaking and shot volume from the defense stands as a logical route to take when it comes to generating more 5v5 offense. And as seen below on goals jumpstarted by McAvoy activating and keeping a puck alive and Grzelcyk jumping up and keeping a puck in — good things tend to follow when your playmaking blueliners make the right reads.

"I thought they were great tonight in terms of playing on their toes, urgency — so that's gaps, that's keeping pucks alive, that's moving at the offensive blue line,” Cassidy said of his D corps. “Awareness on faceoffs, all of the battling hard. Keeping good players to the outside, limit them to one and done. I thought our one-on-ones were better in every area. 

“Listen, Colorado's a heavy challenge for any D corps, especially their top six and then their D get involved on the rush and now you got rush reads going on. But I thought it started with good reads, being on their toes.”

Add in a strong showing from Jeremy Swayman (28 saves on 29 shots) as the last line of defense, and the Avs had little opportunity to inflict any heavy damage against a Bruins team that desperately needed a bounce-back outing like this. 

"Phenomenal. They've been great,” Swayman said of the defense in front of him. “The last 10-15 games, I've been super happy with them in front of me, especially today. It's been good. It's been an upward trend of good communication, boxing out, doing their job and I got all the trust in the world in them."

Postgame, Cassidy was quick to note that while a win like this could “propel” his club going into a six-game road trip, one quality win doesn’t suddenly wipe the slate clean from what was a rather pedestrian stretch for this roster.

But for a Bruins club still licking their chops at the prospect of another playoff run, a performance like Monday does offer some reassurance that this team has the means to practice what their coach preaches when it comes to hanging with some of the heavyweights in the league.

"I hope that it's a little proven point for us that we can play these kinds of teams and we can play for a full 60,” Pastrnak said. “Because I think it was a hell of a game from us and hopefully we recognize it and have more games like that.”