Almost there. The start of the Stanley Cup playoffs are now just one week away. Between now and then, the Bruins will play their final three regular-season games: Tuesday vs. Florida, Thursday vs. Buffalo, and Friday at Toronto.
After beating the Canadiens 5-3 on Sunday night, the Bruins remain in the first Eastern Conference wild card spot, with some space on either side of them. They’re three points behind the Lightning for third place in the Atlantic Division and three points ahead of the Capitals, who are currently in the second wild card spot. If Washington were to pass Pittsburgh for third place in the Metropolitan Division, then the Bruins are two points ahead of the Penguins with a game in hand.
The Bruins’ current first-round opponent would be Carolina. The Panthers, Maple Leafs and Rangers all remain possibilities as well, but the Hurricanes certainly look like the most likely. Depending on which first-round matchup you’d prefer, you could make a case that getting as many points as possible this week is a priority, but that’s a bit subjective.
Here are five items that should definitely be on the Bruins’ to-do list for this week:
1. Stay healthy
Stating the obvious here. The Bruins finally seem to be on the other side of a weeks-long injury scare that saw David Pastrnak, Hampus Lindholm, Linus Ullmark, Matt Grzelcyk, Brandon Carlo and Trent Frederic all miss varying amounts of time. Pastrnak, Lindholm and Ullmark all returning on Saturday and showing little rust allowed the Bruins to breathe a little bit easier.
There will still be some breath-holding for one more week, though. There will be some scares, like Sunday night when Taylor Hall was slow to get up after taking a hard hit. Fortunately, that appears to have just been a case of getting his wind knocked out.
Recent injuries on other playoff teams to the likes of Toronto’s Auston Matthews (already back) and Michael Bunting (timetable unclear), Carolina goalie Frederik Andersen (possibly back for the first round), Pittsburgh goalie Tristan Jarry (possibly done for the season) and now Washington’s Alex Ovechkin (injured Sunday night, considered day-to-day) all serve as reminders of how uncomfortable this time of year can get.
One thing that could help the Bruins avoid injuries would be sitting as many regulars as possible for Friday’s regular-season finale in Toronto. If the Bruins are locked into their seed already, that is almost certainly what they’ll do. They might do that even if they’re not locked into a certain spot yet.
2. Get the power play going
After going 0-for-1 Sunday night, the Bruins’ power play has now gone 11 games and 33 straight tries without scoring. Yes, they haven’t had Pastrnak for nine of those games (he missed eight straight and was then rested Sunday night as well), but his return on Saturday wasn’t an instant fix either.
The Bruins got a few good looks on Saturday against the Rangers with Pastrnak back. He set up Hall for a chance and his presence helped free up Patrice Bergeron for a couple shots from the bumper that hadn’t been available when teams were keying on Bergeron with Pastrnak out. But ultimately the power play still finished the day 0-for-3.
With possibly just two games left with their full lineup actually playing, the Bruins would really like to see the power play break through with at least one and hopefully multiple goals. The talent is there, and this hasn’t been a season-long problem. Prior to this 11-game slump, the Bruins’ man advantage ranked in the top 10 in the NHL.
One problem is that the Bruins just haven’t had a whole lot of practice time recently with how compact their schedule has been. They’re off Monday after playing back-to-back days this weekend. They’ll probably have a full practice on Wednesday and then one or two this coming weekend before the playoffs start. Those should help if the Bruins really need practice time to get the power play right, but they’d love to see it score Tuesday night against Florida and not have this drought continue to hang over them.
3. End Brad Marchand’s goal drought
Speaking of droughts, Marchand has looked like a frustrated player for a while now as his personal goalless drought is also now at 11 games.
He’s still doing some good things, especially over the weekend when he had three assists in two games. He helped set up Pastrnak’s goal on Saturday with a good zone entry to lead the rush. Then he made a great play behind the net to set up Bergeron’s first goal on Sunday.
But we also saw Marchand miss an empty net on Saturday and shoot right into Montreal goalie Sam Montembeault’s chest on a good chance on Sunday. He has tried to force some plays and turned the puck over. When you see Marchand needing to be calmed down by Bergeron on the bench on Thursday or getting into a slashing match with Josh Anderson on Sunday, you have to wonder if that elevated state of agitation is tied to his goal-scoring slump.
Marchand can still make an impact even when the puck’s not going in. You just hope he doesn’t get so frustrated that he does something regrettable that might get him suspended again. A goal or two between now and Friday would go a long way towards easing some of that tension.
4. Figure out the goalie plan
Ullmark had appeared to move ahead of Jeremy Swayman for the No. 1 job before getting hurt. After missing three games, Ullmark picked up where he left off with an excellent outing on Saturday. He’s expected to get two more starts -- Tuesday and one of Thursday or Friday -- and could lock down the Game 1 start if he finishes strong.
Swayman was great in his first two starts with Ullmark out, which was encouraging to see given his struggles before then. He hasn’t been as great in his two most recent starts, though. He’s expected to get just one more start before the playoffs. Whether he could possibly still do enough to win the Game 1 starter’s job remains to be seen, but the Bruins would like to see him finish strong regardless.
The reality is that if the Bruins are going to make any sort of lengthy playoff run, they’re probably going to need both goalies at some point. Neither has ever started an NHL playoff game, and neither has ever handled the kind of workload that would come with starting every single game for a month or two straight.
How Bruce Cassidy and his staff manage their goalies and when or if they decide to change up the starter could be the single most fascinating Bruins storyline this postseason.
5. Settle on a third pairing
It’s possible Cassidy has already done this, but he hasn’t officially come out and said it. After a few weeks of juggling and experimenting post-trade deadline and through a few different injuries, Cassidy appears to be settling on Derek Forbort and Connor Clifton as his third defense pairing, with Mike Reilly the odd man out when everyone’s healthy.
Over the Bruins’ last nine games, Forbort-Clifton has been the Bruins’ most-used pair. In their 73:55 of 5-on-5 ice time, the Bruins have had 53.6% of shots on goal, 55.0% of expected goals, 57.7% of scoring chances and 84.6% of high-danger chances. They’ve held opponents to just two high-danger chances and one goal during that time. You’ll take that all day from a third pairing, especially when you add in Forbort’s penalty-killing ability (he leads the team in shorthanded time on ice).
Reilly has been playing pretty well himself recently minus a few bad penalties, but that has come playing higher in the lineup with Lindholm out. It’s been a while since Cassidy has had him with either Forbort or Clifton, and the Forbort-Reilly experiment didn’t go especially well the first time around anyways.
It’s certainly possible that Reilly’s mobility will be needed at some point, but Cassidy seems to prefer the more physical, defensive-minded nature of a Forbort-Clifton pairing for the time being, and it’s hard to argue with the recent results.
All stats via NHL.com or Natural Stat Trick.
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