Four things the Bruins need to do to keep their season alive against Carolina

It’s do-or-die time for the Bruins, who will need to keep their season alive by way of two straight wins against the Hurricanes in this first-round series. Of course, even if the Bruins manage to even up this seven-game tilt on Thursday with a victory on home ice in Game 6, the B’s still have their work cut out for them in a potential Game 7 at PNC Arena — where Boston has been outscored, 15-4, over three losses.

So, what does Boston need to do to keep this latest Cup run afloat? Let’s look at four key factors:

Wake up a dormant supporting cast

So far in this first-round series, the Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak line has been an O-zone cheat code for Boston — with the B’s outscoring Carolina, 4-1, and holding a 22-10 edge in shots on goal in their 28:37 of 5v5 ice time together. That line alone is responsible for two-thirds of Boston’s total scoring output at 5v5 play over five games.

So why then, in a pivotal Game 6, is Bruce Cassidy set to split up the 63-37-88 trio once more? 

It all has to do with sparking a supporting cast that has done little to alleviate the scoring burden placed on the shoulders of Boston’s top stars. 

If the Bruins are going to go out swinging against the Hurricanes this week, it seems as though Cassidy is set to do it with the personnel that — at various points of this season — offered signs of hope that Boston’s secondary-scoring woes were finally going to be a thing of the past. 

Be it Jake DeBrusk back on the top line, Taylor Hall and Erik Haula being granted a legit weapon on the right side in Pastrnak or the reunion of a third line of Trent Frederic, Charlie Coyle and Craig Smith — the Bruins have multiple, established NHLers sprinkled throughout this lineup.

Now, the onus is going to have to fall on the players to finally deliver. 

"That's just going back to what we were successful at in the second half of the year — how we started the series, essentially,” Cassidy said of the rationale behind splitting up the Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak line. “We made an adjustment in Game 3, felt we needed to make, but we always felt we'd like to get back to when we were playing our best hockey and started a little bit in Game 5 — you could see that we were going to have to move some pieces around again. And we're going to do it from the start tonight. We'll see how it goes. We know we can shuffle pieces, but that's how we're doing it today."

Of course, while it does seem inevitable that 63-37-88 will receive some looks together in Game 6 (and a potential Game 7), the Bruins can’t keep relying on its top-three forwards to do all the heavy lifting in this series, especially if they lose last change once again down in Raleigh. 

As we noted following Tuesday’s disheartening Game 5 loss, your middle-six grouping is in ROUGH shape when Connor Clifton has more 5v5 points in a playoff series than guys like Coyle, Smith and DeBrusk.

There’s plenty of risk involved with splitting up your one proven conduit of offense in 63-37-88 for any amount of time. But frankly, if you’re going to continue to get lackluster returns or outright no-shows from players like Haula (two points, along with some sub-standard D-zone play) and Smith (0 points), then you don’t deserve a chance to punch your ticket the next round. 

"When he's on pucks, creates on the forecheck, loose pucks, he's quick,” Cassidy said of what Smith needs to do to get rolling. “When he's firing in pucks in the slot, he's got a good release and he had some looks, Smitty. He's been off-net with some — he's got to help himself there. But again, the more volume of opportunities for him and his whole line — usually it starts with playing off the shots, funneling. 

“Those are the areas when they're successful as a line, no matter who's with them on the left side. So a little more getting back to that and that starts I think with a little bit of Charlie separating man to man and then once you've created a little separation — okay, attack mode. Let's attack, everyone's on the same page, we can outnumber them at the net with the appropriate spacing and that's when Smitty tends to find some pucks, second chances, etc.”

Drive down low 

Seth Jarvis’ first “goal” in Game 5 might have been the icing on the cake for a Bruins team that seemed to not have any puck luck fall their way — but Cassidy was not going to chalk up that entire sequence to just a bad bounce for Boston.

Yes, Carolina padded their lead on Tuesday off a brutal sequence in which Brandon Carlo’s attempted clear bounced off of DeBrusk’s skates and sailed over Jeremy Swayman — but Jarvis’ presence down low was enough to create just enough chaos for an ill-timed feed from Boston. 

Add in Jarvis’ second goal of the evening, a put-back of a rebound down low, and it’s rather evident how these goals are finding their way in the back of the net for the Canes.

“Give Jarvis a lot of credit, right, he's hanging around the front of the net, so I'm not going to take anything away from him,” Cassidy said. “But that's a goal that goes in once a month — where you slinging it off from your stomach off one of our guys, pinballs over the goalie's head. 

“But I give him credit for being around the front of the net and the dirty areas and same with his next goal. He's a young kid that's done a good job with that. We need a little more of that with our mentality of our guys — guys have been in the league. He's not a big guy, Jarvis, but he found a way to get to the net front and that's effective playoff hockey.”

Antti Raanta has been steady at times in this series, but the backup netminder is prone to his fair share of rebounds and loose pucks. And as Andrew Raycroft noted in his latest episode of The Morning Bru podcast, a goalie with an extensive injury history like Raanta doesn’t often feel too comfortable when players are driving toward the net at him. (Connor Clifton’s goal in garbage time of Game 5 is a prime example of that).

It’s a familiar mantra we discuss every spring when it comes to diagnosing Boston’s scoring woes in the postseason, but the Bruins need to pack things in around Carolina’s net and bury some ugly goals in order to get more guys rolling further down on the depth chart. 

5v5 play has not been kind to the B’s in this series — with Carolina outscoring them, 12-6, over 207:10 of ice time. But when it comes to seeing just how the Bruins have managed to land those limited punches, it’s all coming right around Raanta/Kochetkov’s doorstep. 

A netfront tip, deflection or rebound tap in over the first few minutes of play (Boston has surrendered the first goal in eight meetings against Carolina this season), could change the entire mindset of a Carolina team that is at its best when protecting a lead.

Stealing a game in net

In Boston’s victories in Games 3 and 4, it was often the timing of Jeremy Swayman’s stops, rather than the quantity, that stood out when it came to the rookie’s first taste of playoff action.

But if the Bruins want to keep this season alive, they’re going to need Swayman to be more than just battling through some adversity and keeping Boston in it. Sooner or later, the B’s are going to need their goalie to steal a game for them, and what better time than in Games 6 and 7 against Carolina.

Of course, it’s a tall ask for a young netminder set to make his fourth straight start for the first time in his NHL career. But the Bruins cannot find themselves chasing another game via a seeing-eye goal, as was the case with Jaccob Slavin’s tally just 6:11 into Game 5 — negating what was looking like another solid road start for Boston in enemy territory. 

Get the ice bags ready

For as much as the Bruins’ D corps (especially with Hampus Lindholm back in the lineup) will look to limit the amount of time spent in their own end by way of crisp first passes and clean transition play, let’s face it. 

Trying to completely snuff out a trademark O-zone surge from a fast-paced team like Carolina is like putting up a wall of sand in an effort to contain the unrelenting shift of the tides. It’s going to come sooner or later.

And if the Bruins want to survive those pushes at 5v5 play, it’s likely going to be very, very painful.

With Boston’s stingy zone defense, Cassidy and the Bruins are often willing to relinquish areas further up in their own zone in order to pack in down low and limit second-chance looks and Grade-A chances.

That’s a winning formula against most teams — but Carolina is one of the best in the league when it comes to getting its D-men involved in the offense, often by way of point shots from the blue line.

If Boston is once again going to crowd bodies down low, guys like Derek Forbort, Brandon Carlo and … well, just about every B’s player — is going to have to show a commitment to blocking shots and preventing those clappers and one-timers from Slavin and Tony DeAngelo from sailing through the mass of skaters down low.