After the 2020 NHL playoffs started yesterday afternoon with an absurd five overtime game (fourth longest contest in league history) between the Lightning and Blue Jackets-won 3-2 by Brayden Point and Tampa Bay)-it pushed Game 1 between the Bruins and Hurricanes from last night to an 11 a.m. start this morning. This being 2020, the silliness of course continued with a double overtime contest between Boston and Carolina. Thankfully, the Apocalypse might be upon us but at least Patrice Bergeron is still Patrice Bergeron and he won it at 1:13 of double overtime after a beautiful sequence with linemates Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak. It was a bit of redemption for Boston's top line that was completely shutdown in the Stanley Cup Final last year vs. St. Louis and hadn't gotten going in last week's "preseason" games as Marchand termed them.
Bergeron's overtime tally was the fourth in his career, giving him the new franchise record and moving ahead of Terry O'Reilly and Mel Hill who both had three. Also, Bergeron's two points (goal, assist) pushed him in front of David Krejci (goal) for second most playoff points (106) in team history. Finally, Patrice has 41 career playoff goals which is now the fourth best as a Bruin. Bottom line, this would have been a tough loss for the B's since they outshot the Canes 40-28 and truthfully should have won this in regulation given all the great scoring chances that they squandered.
Even though they swept the Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Finals last season, this is not the same overmatched Carolina club. This series is sure to be harder than that for the Bruins to win but you still have to realize that the Hurricanes' goaltending situation and defensemen are both suspect at best. Petr Mrazek made 36 saves but if the B's (namely Jake DeBrusk) could have hit the target a little better, he would have been pulled after allowing five or six goals. Matt Grzelyck also had a shot hit the crossbar then post on the same play, haha that's basically impossible to do. So how did the Hurricanes last until double overtime? Well, Tuukka Rask (25 saves) was not particularly sharp, Boston's power play was useless (0-for-4) and Pastrnak had a brutal turnover leading to a shorthanded goal by the immortal Brock McGinn which sounds like the name of an 80s teen movie villian.
Every doomsday scenario has to be considered in this insane time to be alive so don't be shocked if Jaroslav Halak starts for the Bruins, mostly because Game 2 is tomorrow night (8, NESN) and remember that Game 3 is an early start on Saturday (12 p.m., NBC). Rask played every game last postseason but that doesn't seem feasible this time around since if the B's keep advancing, they're bound to play back-to-backs which are typical of the regular season but not the playoffs.
Neither team could really hold a lead since Carolina opened the scoring at 13:02 of the first period on Joel Edmundson's blast but from there, they rallied from brief 2-1 and 3-2 deficits. The former Blue's first goal of the postseason was assisted by Teuvo Teravainen and Sebastian Aho. Pasta quickly answered with his first goal of the playoffs at 17:45, the result of a pretty cross-crease feed from Marchand and second assist to Bergy.
Mrazek allowed a bunch of juicy rebounds all game long (one of his specialties) and Boston was able to take advantage of that early in the second period. He failed to cover up a loose puck which allowed Charlie Coyle to swoop in and fire it past the basically vacant net. Carolina head coach Rod Brind'Amour challenged the play but it stood as Coyle's first postseason goal at 4:38 of the second period. The first lead in five games (including the exhibition vs. Columbus) lasted for a grand total of 21 seconds as Boston got a power play from the challenge that didn't work but Pastrnak promptly coughed the puck right up to McGinn who skated in on a breakaway and beat Rask up high with a backhander. Woof.
Once again, a blunder by Mrazek led to another Bruins go-ahead goal though when Ondrej Kase (who was great all day) fired a relatively easy shot that Petr kicked directly to Krejci. In his patented calm manner, he wheeled around the Hurricanes' goaltender and flipped the puck in for his first goal of the playoffs 59 seconds into the third period. Charlie McAvoy (team-high 33:45) had the other assist for the B's. The one Carolina goal that you could really blame Rask on was fittingly the tying one in the third period: something named Haydn Fleury (subbing in for Sami Vatanen who was "unfit to play" along with Mr. Overtime Justin Williams) threw a wrist shot on net from just inside the blue line and it somehow went in. Granted, there was plenty of traffic in front which surely obstructed Rask's view but come on, it wasn't a Zdeno Chara slap shot over 100 mph. Former Panthers great Vincent Trocheck had the lone assist on Fleury's shaky tying goal that came at 9:49.
Much of the first overtime was the same story for Boston: missed opportunities. They outshot Carolina 11-6 and drew the lone penalty of either overtime-Brady Skjei held Charlie Coyle late in the 1st OT. Bergeron's goal was the only shot by the Bruins in double overtime and who better to end it than him-one of the best players in Bruins history. The whole sequence was Bruins porn as Brandon Carlo started the rush, Pastrnak gave the puck to Marchand at center ice, Brad gave it back to David then he dropped a backhander to Patrice. Of course, Mrazek looked like he was on a slip and slide as he slid over too far to have a chance to stop Bergy's low, hard shot into the corner of the net.
Looking ahead to Game 2, the numbers favor the Black and Gold: they are 32-21 all-time in Game 2s when leading a best-of-7 series 1-0 while the Canes are 10-14 in Game 2s when they trail 0-1 in a best-of-seven series. Furthermore, Boston is 37-17 all-time in best-of-seven series when they lead 1-0 and Carolina is 6-7 all-time in a best-of-seven series when they trail 0-1. Obviously 2020 is bonkers and with no travel or fans, these historical figures might not mean as much as they typically do. We shall see but at least playoff hockey is back in a big way for the B's after today's awesome victory.
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