If you were trying to pick the three stars of the Bruins' 4-2 win over the Hurricanes Friday night, you would have plenty of players to choose from.
Charlie Coyle had his first two points of the series, including a shorthanded goal that swung the momentum of the game and possibly the series. David Pastrnak helped ignite the power play with a goal and an assist on the man advantage. Brad Marchand had a three-point game, including his first 5-on-5 goal in over a month. Jeremy Swayman stopped 25 of the 27 shots he faced to get his first career playoff win in his first career playoff start.
Derek Forbort did not have a point in the game. He only had one shot on goal. He was actually a minus-1 at 5-on-5 play. And yet Forbort was named the third star of the game. He could have been the first.
In a game that was ultimately decided by special teams, Forbort was an absolute beast on the penalty kill. As he usually does, he led the Bruins in shorthanded time on ice. But this wasn't a usual PK workload. Forbort more than doubled his regular-season average of 3:05 per game, playing an astounding 6:46 of the 10 minutes' worth of penalties the Bruins had to kill. That was part of a total ice time of 23:07, the highest on the team.
The Bruins killed all five of those penalties, in large part because of Forbort's efforts. And a big part of those efforts was the kind of work no one really wants to do: Blocking shots. Forbort finished with a playoff career-high nine blocks, six of which came on the PK. Four of them came on shots from Andrei Svechnikov, including three in a 40-second span on a kill late in the second that left Forbort hobbling to the bench while receiving a hard-earned ovation from his teammates and the Garden crowd.
"To me, those are the unsung heroes -- guys that worked really, really hard to keep the puck out of our net, like Forbort for example. He really showed his value tonight," Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said after the game.
That value has been questioned at times this season, and not without reason. It took Forbort a long time to settle in and look comfortable after signing a three-year, $9 million deal as a free agent last summer. He never really clicked with Charlie McAvoy on the Bruins' top pairing, which is where he started the season. While his penalty-killing has been pretty consistent all season long, there hasn't always been the 5-on-5 consistency to match it.
But in a playoff series in which the Bruins have had virtually no margin for error, the value of Forbort's work in making sure penalties didn't cost Boston Friday night was obvious to see.
"He was brought in to be that type of stay-at-home, try to be a stiff defender, keep the puck of your net, shot blocker, really good on the PK. He's been as advertised," Cassidy said. "…Those are the guys that make a difference in these type of games. You need your scorers to score and your kind of muckers or checkers to be physical and block shots."
Brad Marchand has been around long enough and been through enough playoff runs to understand that having a player like Forbort, who's willing to rack up bruises like Forbort surely did Friday night, is pretty much a necessity at this time of year.
"He's one of those guys that plays the game that guys don't wanna play," Marchand said. "He sacrifices every night for the group, puts his body in harm's way, and those are the guys that you win with in playoffs. You have to be able to have guys that are willing to put their bodies on the line every night and risk getting hurt if you wanna go deep. And he's a huge reason -- he blocked some really good opportunities from that team over there, and he has all year.
"He's a reason why we're in the position we're in. He's a big reason why we won tonight and a huge reason why the PK was good at big moments tonight. Gotta give him a ton of credit. Sometimes those guys that eat pucks and play hard like that don't get the credit they deserve, but it's great that he's getting that recognition, because you don't win without guys like that."
The rookie goalie playing behind Forbort certainly appreciated his efforts, too.
"I love that guy," Swayman said when asked about Forbort. "He's the man. He's been doing that all year for us, too. Nothing new for him. He does everything for the team, for the crest, and it shows. Guys play hard for him and he does the same for us. So he's an awesome person to have in front of me."
