NHL Notebook: In this stacked Eastern Conference playoff field, Bruins shouldn’t waste time watching standings

In some respects, trying to chart out the easiest route through the Eastern Conference is like trying to find the fastest way to the Cape in mid-July. 

Route 3 over the Sagamore Bridge? Route 28 over Bourne? 

Whichever path you take — it's gonna suck. 

Such seems to be the sentiment shared by Bruce Cassidy and the Bruins — who, even in wake of Friday’s overtime win over the Lightning, have just one point separating them from a wild-card spot in this cutthroat conference. 

"I think it doesn't matter now, almost, to us,” Cassidy said when asked if the Bruins are preoccupied with who they might face on May 2. “We're gonna play a good team, right?  ... At the end of the day, I think all four teams know that they're going to have a tough opponent on each side — there's really no team to me that you can say, 'Well, this one might be a little easier than the next.' It's kind of pick your poison. And I think for us, we're all about getting our game together. And then obviously is it Tampa, is it Toronto?”

“That's how it's shaping up for us to stay ahead of, to see if we can climb up a bit and I guess there was a time there where we thought maybe home ice would be in play for us. Toronto has kind of won a few in a row now, but I think it'll go right down to the wire and for us, I don't think it'll matter. Honestly, we're going to play a good team and is our team trending well?

“And I think right now, it is for us for the most part. Tampa is probably a little different because they've been there and done it.  I think they'll be fine. Toronto and Florida have a little something to prove. So I think our whole division will be interesting with how it shakes out. Now one of us might end up over there against Carolina. I don't know how that'll play out. But I'm not even thinking about May 2 and who we're going to play."

As folly as it might be to try and map out potential playoff matchups in a crowded field separated by just a few points, the Bruins are essentially staring at two paths now with 11 games to go in the regular season — either a No. 2 / No. 3 seed bout in the Atlantic, or a winding road across the East as a wild-card club.

With the former, it seems like a given that the Bruins will need to topple Auston Matthews and the high-flying Maple Leafs — with Toronto currently the odds-on favorite to battle the B’s in Round 1 over 50 percent (per The Athletic). 

Had we pitched such a first-round scenario at the start of the 2021-22 campaign (or even in, say, January, when both the Lightning and Panthers were ripping up the competition in the division), you’d be hard-pressed to find Bruins fans bemoaning such a draw. 

After all, the Bruins have plenty of history on their side when it comes to playoff bouts against the Leafs — who have been hampered by more than just the B’s when it comes to their chronic underachieving under the bright lights of the postseason.

But be it the Maple Leafs’ impressive surge over the last month, Boston’s ugly showing against Toronto in head-to-head meetings this season or the simple fact that your biggest foe has to finally break through at some point (right? … right?), the Leafs should not be viewed as a push-over through any lens. 

Granted, a showdown against an improved Toronto team has often been offset by a far worse fate, with Boston opening its latest playoff push as a wild-card team and drawing a juggernaut like the Panthers or Hurricanes at the start of May. 

Much like the Leafs, the ‘Canes have their own poor rap sheet when it comes to postseason success against the B’s. But those narratives ring a bit more hollow when you factor in the beatdown that Carolina has put against Boston this season — outscoring the B’s, 16-1, in their three matchups in 2021-22.

But if Boston does fall back into the wild-card spot, it’s not a forgone conclusion that Rod Brind'Amour’s squad awaits — not with the Rangers making a late push for the top spot in the Metropolitan Division.

Following a 5-1 win over the Senators on Saturday, the Blueshirts are now tied with Carolina for first place in the Metro with 100 points — although the Rangers have played one more game than the Hurricanes (73).

If Boston settles for a wild-card spot, perhaps the Rangers are the most agreeable first-round matchup — especially considering New York’s struggles at even-strength play. But that’s not to say the Rangers are a pushover either (starting to notice a trend?).  

Even though Igor Shesterkin has slowed down as of late (.900 save percentage in his last 10 outings), the netminder has the talent to steal a series on his own merit, while New York has been on a roll since the deadline, especially with a guy like Andrew Copp bolstering an already skilled forward corps (11 points in 10 games as a Ranger). 

So what can we take from this playoff pool and what Boston needs to weigh over the final 11 games of the regular season?

The most prevailing thought seems to be that the B’s will be staring at a daunting endeavor against ANY team that they draw in Round 1 – with Cassidy and Co. likely prioritizing rest and recuperation over the next few weeks instead of chasing a No. 2 seed and potentially a tougher road through the conference. As tempting as it might be to get David Pastrnak and Hampus Lindholm back into the lineup as quickly as possible, those short-term returns aren’t worth the risk of re-aggravating an injury — especially if the end result is still a seven-game series with Toronto.

Throughout this season, Cassidy has often deflected questions when it comes to matchups and the tinkering required to properly negate an opposing team’s strengths. Rather, the B’s bench boss has routinely turned the spotlight back on his club — stressing that Boston’s top priority is its own game. 

And when the Bruins commit to their stingy defensive structure and are executing their gameplan — they can hang with (and beat) the best in the East. 

"It's more about how we're playing,” Cassidy said when asked if Boston values a win more based on the opponent or their own performance on the ice. “You probably take that video and say ‘Hey, when we're going  — this is how we play a solid, hard, low-risk game and then that's how you beat good teams.’ You start coughing up the puck all over the ice, you know, they're gonna bury it.”

A postseason rotation in net?

Linus Ullmark has currently surged ahead of Jeremy Swayman when it comes to jockeying for that Game 1 nod on May 2, but could the Bruins opt to roll with both netminders over the span of this playoff push?

For as much as the days of a true No. 1 netminder earning 70-plus starts in a season have come and gone, that emphasis on a balanced workload doesn’t usually carry over to the postseason — with clubs opting to stick with the hot hand in net and not straying from it, even with a bad game or two.

But make no mistake — a two-man rotation between the pipes does seem to be in play for Boston this postseason, especially if Swayman reasserts himself over the final weeks of the regular season and Ullmark’s game doesn’t tail off. 

“The tough part is the second-guessing and all that stuff from the perspective of it's always been a one-man kind of thing in the playoffs, right? So that's something that not too many teams have gone through — a rotation all the way through," Cassidy said. "It's usually the hot hand. So you're gonna have to balance that. But you have to manage, like where are your guys in terms of how much workload can they take in their career — like both of them are gonna go into the playoffs, and this will probably be their heaviest workload. 

“Certainly for Jeremy in terms of games started before we even get to the playoffs. And Ullmark's got to be getting — I'll have to do my homework on that. But he missed some time with injuries, Buffalo was not in the playoffs. So he may be getting up close to it by the time we started as well. So it might just be out of necessity, like these guys just are not there in their career where they can just take the ball and run with it for two months. That's your end goal, right? 

 “But now, all a sudden, you win a game, you're going to put the other guy in, you know what I mean? You go against sort of conventional wisdom. So you're really going to have to know your guys."

Bruins add intriguing Merkulov to college free-agent pool

Another day, another collegiate talent crossing the t’s and dotting the i’s with the Bruins.

Boston added to its prospect pool on Saturday morning by inking Ohio State freshman center Georgii Merkulov to a three-year, entry-level contract that kicks in next season. Merkulov will play the remainder of this season down in Providence on an amateur tryout agreement.

Saturday’s signing does come as a bit of a surprise, considering that most college free agents that sign with NHL clubs are usually upperclassmen — even though Merkulov is a bit older at 21 years old (turns 22 in October). And frankly, it’s not often you see the Bruins target Russian-born talent in the draft or free agency, with Merkulov hailing from Ryazan, but moving to the U.S. in 2019 and playing two seasons in the USHL before heading to Ohio State. 

Merkulov might not have been on the radar of many in terms of signing candidates this summer, but not because of his production — with the freshman leading the Buckeyes with 20 goals and 34 points over 36 games this past season, earning All-Big Ten First Team honors in the process.

Merkulov found himself in pretty elite company on that all-conference list — joined by Matty Beniers, Owen Power, Brock Faber and Ben Meyers (the top college UFA target for many clubs.)

Of course, there’s a fair amount of regression that’s to be expected for a player making the jump from the college game to the pros, but Merkulov was more than just a volume shooter for the Buckeyes — winning 55% of his faceoffs while leading all NCAA players with seven game-winning goals. 

When the Buckeyes visited the Boston area earlier this season during a series at Bentley, both Don Sweeney and Adam McQuaid were on hand to watch — although the B’s had plenty of incentive to attend anyway with Mason Lohrei anchoring Ohio State’s blue line.

Merkulov now stands as the third college free agent that the Bruins have signed in less than a month — joining Boston College forward Marc McLaughlin and Western Michigan goaltender Brandon Bussi.