With first place in the entire league on the line, one team showed why they’re the defending Stanley Cup champion while the other… …showed why they’re somehow here when you least expected it.
The Carolina Hurricanes beat the Boston Bruins, 2-1, at Lenovo Center Tuesday night in Raleigh, but admit it, you’re enjoying the ride, aren’t you?
Boston’s eight-game point streak came to an end, but somehow they’re 9-3-1 to start the season and remain in command of first place in the Atlantic Division.
Carolina, meanwhile, showed their patented game of calculations and patience that drives opponents insane and suppresses shots against in such a way that even Martin Brodeur would be jealous.
After all, Brodeur played in an era before shots on goal were reviewed with a fine-toothed comb in light of sports gambling’s (legal) existence and the many, many parlays that depend an the accurate shot count.
Scott Niedermayer, Scott Stevens and Brian Rafalski be damned, the official scorer is now your greatest defender.
Anyway, Shayne Gostisbehere had one blocked shot, Jalen Chatfield blocked two, Juuso Välimäki blocked one, K’Andre Miller stood in front of two, Sean Walker blocked three and Jaccob Slavin blocked two.
Even if Boston had gotten those 11 shot attempts through to Pyotr Kochetkov, they still would’ve trailed in the total shot count.
Carolina outshot Boston, 30-15, including a, 12-7, advantage in the first period, an, 8-2, advantage in the second period and a, 10-6, advantage in the third period.
Standing around and letting your opponent force the play is a signature component to why the Hurricanes are successful.
The Bruins were making too many pass attempts and forced passes that Carolina had no issue picking them off– intentional or otherwise.
And when the B’s started carrying the puck midway through the final frame it proved costly.
It wasn’t a great night for the defensive pairing of Mason Lohrei and Frédéric Brunet. It’s an 84-game season, not every one of them is going to be a winner.
The hope is that Brunet uses this poor performance as motivation to learn and do better in the next game.
Alternatively, Bruins head coach, Marco Sturm, could use Tuesday night as a reason to rotate Connor Clifton or Jonathan Aspirot back into the lineup Thursday night in St. Louis. Perhaps both even.
Lohrei held the puck in the offensive zone for too long– passing and shooting opportunities went by the wayside– and he promptly turned it over while corralling the puck in the slot, leading to a rush the other way for the Hurricanes.
William Carrier skated through the neutral zone with ease, moved the puck to Andrei Svechnikov to his right, then Brunet pinched while Svechnikov let go of an easy backhand pass to beat Boston’s defense.
Carrier nearly got a touch on it as Lohrei– while overcompensating to get back and defend the play– made the decision to sprawl out and sweep the passing lane– completely missing the puck in the process.
Sebastian Aho had no trouble ricocheting the rubber biscuit with a backhand off the post, off Jeremy Swayman and in on the high-danger scoring conversion.
All in all, just that kind of night for Boston. Frustrating, sure, but a good reminder that the Bruins are not close to contending for the Cup and still have 71 more games left in the regular season before any potential playoff action. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
Stick to the plan.
Now for the positives:
Pavel Zacha had a power-play goal to kick things off 1:31 into the first period. Great!
The power play went 1/5 on the night. While you’d like to have seen them convert on one or two more skater advantages, going 1/5 is better than going 0/5 (or 0/4 like how the Hurricanes did in Tuesday’s contest).
Elias Lindholm had the primary assist on Zacha’s goal and now has a three-game point streak (1-3–4 totals) and points in four out of his last five games (2-3–5 totals).
David Pastrňák had the secondary assist and now has a three-game point streak as well (3-3–6 totals) and points in four out of his last five games (4-4–8 totals).
Swayman made 28 saves on 30 shots faced– good enough for a .933 save percentage in the game and his seventh quality start in 10 games this season.
Despite dropping to a 7-2-1 record, Swayman has a 2.19 goals-against average and a .921 SV% on the season.
And to steal a phrase from Canes head coach, Rod Brind’Amour, “that game was closer than you think.”
No, but seriously, the first period looked promising in terms of the “can they keep up with a real contender” aspect, then the rest of the night was just overthinking and inexperience.
Matthew Poitras may have missed an open net and rang the post a couple of times, but getting breakouts, showing a solid backhand shot and creating chances helped showcase that he is a certified fourth line forward.
There are going to be other nights.
