BSJ Game Report: Hurricanes 5, Bruins 1 - B’s fail to capitalize early, run out of gas late

Everything you need to know from the Bruins’ 5-1 loss to the Hurricanes in Game 1, with BSJ insight and analysis: 

BOX SCORE

HEADLINES 

Bruins miss opportunity to put Carolina on its heels: The PNC Arena scoreboard might have displayed a 0-0 deadlock through the first 35 minutes of Monday’s Game 1, but the Bruins had to feel positive about how their playoff opener was trending. 

With backup Antti Raanta between the pipes for Carolina, the B’s were smelling blood in the water — swarming the veteran and lurking for second-chance opportunities down low. Down the other end of the ice, the Bruins were limiting Carolina’s knack for generating chances off of a furious forecheck, while the B’s PK unit was limiting Grade-A looks in front of Linus Ullmark.

Boston nearly broke the 0-0 draw when Hampus Lindholm set up Charlie McAvoy down low with a crisp D-to-D feed. But just minutes later, the dam burst — and the Bruins were unable to handle the swell that the ‘Canes brewed up down in Raleigh.

What looked to be a defensive slugfest quickly devolved into a laugher, as Seth Jarvis and Nino Niederreiter both lit the lamp just 2:10 apart in the closing minutes of the second to lift Carolina to an eventual 5-1 victory in Game 1.

Any talk of silver linings for a B’s team that played Carolina pretty even for most of the first half of Monday’s tilt likely dissipated as the game progressed, with the Hurricanes pouncing on just about every miscue that Boston committed — including a brutal pinch from Matt Grzelcyk that led to a Teuvo Teravainen tally less than five minutes after Taylor Hall finally got the visitors on the board at 2:53 in the third.

Yes, it’s just Game 1 of what should be a lengthy series, but these are the kind of games where teams often tend to kick themselves for not taking advantage of the opportunity in front of them. Raanta might have had a strong final stat line (35 saves on 36 shots), but he was beatable for extended stretches — and the road isn’t going to get any easier for the B’s if/when Frederik Andersen returns later this week.

Bruins need more from big guns: An opportunistic Carolina club pounced on just about every mistake Boston made on Monday, but things could have been very different for the B’s had more of their star players manage to land some punches. 

Even though Hall lit the lamp (and nearly added another shortly thereafter) and McAvoy threw his weight around with regularity, the Bruins didn’t get much from their usual suspects like Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak. 

For all of the talk regarding Boston’s added scoring depth this season, the Bruins are still going to need their franchise forwards to drive the bus — be it at even-strength play or especially on the power play (which was thoroughly embarrassed on Monday, especially in the third period). 

Yes, between Rod Brind’Amour sticking his shutdown third line anchored by Jordan Staal on  Bergeron and Co. — or his top shutdown D in Jaccob Slavin on Pastrnak and that second line — the Bruins are going to have their work cut out for them when it comes to capitalizing on these matchups down in Raleigh.

But guys like Marchand, Bergeron and Pastrnak have overcome such obstacles plenty of times before against Carolina in the postseason. Boston is going to need that to continue, and fast.

TWO UP

Charlie McAvoy: On a night in which Boston’s D corps was knocked for either being too passive or too aggressive when it came to accounting for Carolina’s pressure, McAvoy managed to leave an imprint on the game just about every time he hopped over the boards, landing three hits in his 24:08 of ice time while setting up Hall’s goal by battling down low along the end boards. 

Taylor Hall: After a bit of a slow start, Hall really ramped things up as the game carried on — briefly cutting Boston’s deficit in half before nearly tying things up with a strong shot that clanged off the crossbar. The Bruins are going to need an engaged Hall to drive play on that second line, especially when it comes to orchestrating clean entries via that straight-line speed that he possesses.

ONE “SO-SO”

Fourth line: When it comes to the north-south task that is often assigned to this checking unit, the Foligno-Nosek-Lazar line more or less carried out their orders in Game 1: extending O-zone time, putting pressure on Carolina's puck carriers and wearing down the opposition. Still, Nosek might need to burn all of his sticks in some sort of ritual, because he is beyond snake-bit at this point. Who knows how this game would have turned out had he buried that look he had in the second period. 

THREE DOWN

Matt Grzelcyk: Just a back-breaking miscue from Grzelcyk here shortly after Hall finally got the B’s on the board. You need to take a few chances against a high-pace team like Carolina, but not with more than 12 minutes to go in regulation. Just can’t have a slip-up like this at this stage of the contest. 

Coyle Line: Yes, Grzelcyk is going to catch most of the flak for that pinch before Teravainen’s goal, but the B’s also didn’t get a ton of defensive support from the third line either, which put forth a lackluster showing throughout the night. At one point in Monday's game, the Hurricanes held an 11-0 edge in shots on goal when the Coyle line was deployed. 

Power play: Boston finally seemed to have some momentum brewing on its slumping power play to close out the regular season, scoring three times over its final two contests to snap an 0-for-39 drought. But against Carolina’s top-ranked PK unit, the B’s didn’t just fall back into bad habits - they were downright heinous. The Hurricanes needed to do very, very little on that third-period kill — with Boston routinely running straight into a wall of skaters at the blue line. Ugly stuff.

PLAY OF THE GAME

LOOSE PUCKS 

One of the many heavy hits that both teams doled out on Monday night. Boston/Carolina landed 10 total hits in the first three minutes of play — and 90 total on the night. 

LOOKING AHEAD

The Bruins will continue their first-round series against Carolina on Wednesday night. Puck drop for Game 2 is set for 7 p.m. at PNC Arena.