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In Bruins’ record-setting season, the Hurricanes loom as the greatest obstacle to Boston’s Cup hopes
"I thought they checked us right out of the rink."
COMMENTARY
PNC Arena has been a house of horrors for the Bruins over the last year.
Boston visited the Hurricanes’ home barn five times during the 2021-22 campaign. They lost every matchup, outscored 21-6 in the process.
Four of those defeats came in the postseason, with Carolina defending its own ice in a seven-game triumph in the first round.
That humbling, season-ending defeat in Raleigh was the closest this veteran roster came to seeing its contention window slammed shut.
The return of Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci this summer jammed that window ajar, for now.
Fifty games into a new season, the memories of last year’s disappointment have faded as Boston piles on points at a record rate.
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And yet — as the final horn bellowed from the PNC Arena speakers Sunday night — why did it feel like a dominant, destiny-driven Bruins team was mired in the same sour spot?
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The consequences weren’t as severe for Boston in a regular-season meeting with the Hurricanes.
But Boston was still dealt a familiar fate — out-played, out-hustled and out-willed by a Canes team ready to stand as the Bruins’ biggest hurdle this postseason.
“I think [our] problem was the Carolina Hurricanes,” head coach Jim Montgomery said of his team’s woes on the NESN postgame show. “I thought they checked us right out of the rink. Give them credit. They competed hard, they really checked well and they caused a lot of turnovers that led to odd-man rushes. Two of their goals they got because of turnovers.”
Sunday’s 4-1 defeat extended Boston’s losing streak to three straight games. Given that the B’s haven’t even dropped consecutive contests until the final week of January, Montgomery and the Bruins aren’t signaling for DEFCON 1.
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But rather than look internally at their own shortcomings, Boston’s bench boss spent the majority of his postgame musings praising an opponent that has crafted a winning blueprint against Boston recently.
Yes, Sunday marked the third game in four nights for Boston. Their two previous games were daunting road jaunts against the Lightning and Panthers. Carolina played just two games over the last week.
But even if Boston had enough time to lick its wounds and rest up during this recent skid, a foe like the Hurricanes is a perfect storm to the Bruins’ structured style of play.
“I think it was them — their work ethic and their resilience and how hard they were to play against led to us being tired over time because we didn’t have the puck a lot,” Montgomery said. “We were chasing it a lot because they checked us really well. And then they protected it well in the offensive zone.”
Few teams in the league forecheck as relentlessly as Rod Brind’Amour’s club. When executed perfectly, the D-zone in PNC Arena devolves into a minefield of misfortune.
Blueliners looking for crisp first passes spend their time sucking wind and looking over their shoulders. As wave after wave of red-and-black skaters swarms into the attack, goalies are peppered with shots from just about every area of the ice.
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It’s an onslaught that can make even a layered team defense like Boston devolve into a flimsy, mistake-prone mess.
“Nothing has really changed,” Linus Ullmark said of Carolina. “They still have the same core group there. So they play simple, straightforward hockey and it works for them. You got to be honest with yourself, you got to bring your best and that’s what everybody does to us right now.”
That constant pressure translates down the other end of the ice as well.
When Boston’s power play is clicking, it can burn teams through a number of avenues. David Pastrnak can hammer home howitzers from the left circle. Patrice Bergeron is adept at redirecting feeds and snapping home pucks from the “bumper” position. Brad Marchand can slice through layers of a PK with his playmaking at the half wall.
But for Boston to accomplish that O-zone fluidity, it needs time to set up its weapons. Carolina rarely allows such a luxury, not when it spends most of its shorthanded reps pressuring puck carriers and stacking their own blue line.
Boston entered Sunday’s game stuck in an 0-for-6 rut on the power play over its last two losses. Against Carolina, that slump stretched to 0-for-12.
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“We were a little slow, especially in the neutral zone,” Bergeron noted. “ And when we’re doing it against a team like that, they’re always gonna be in your face and you have no space. And credit to them. They play a good checking game.”
Add in another stout performance from Frederik Andersen in net (who carried a 152:09 shutout streak against Boston before Pavel Zacha’s third-period goal), and Carolina stands as a matchup nightmare for Bergeron and Co.
This three-game slide is the first true set of adversity to befall the 2022-23 Bruins. Given the injuries they faced in October and November, a losing streak this far into the calendar reflects well on the roster.
Perhaps things will be different in Boston’s return to PNC Arena on March 26. The absence of Jake DeBrusk has been felt as of late. A trade-deadline deal might bolster either roster between now and then.
This Bruins team is still charting a course toward the record books. Little should give pause to the hopes of a championship run in June.
But the road that Bergeron and the Bruins are looking to trudge through won’t be easy.
Especially not with this Hurricanes team standing in the way.
Carolina pushed this Original Six franchise to the brink of the post-Bergeron era last May. If the Bruins don’t brace themselves, the Canes are more than capable of finishing the job this spring.
“We talked about facing adversity at some point in the year. Here we are,” Bergeron said. “We have to face that as a team together and roll up our sleeves and learn from what hasn’t been there in the last few games.”
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