Did you know that the NHL has returned to action? Most hockey fans are probably aware that the season re-started last Saturday after pausing in mid-March due to the Coronavirus pandemic. However, if you are a Bruins fan, the best team in the league before the break has looked nothing like that going 0-3 in round-robin play to drop from the top seed in the Eastern Conference to the No. 4 seed. As a result of Sunday's 2-1 loss to Washington, the B's will meet the Hurricanes in the first-round of the playoffs instead of the Islanders (who they would have met if they had beaten the Capitals). On one hand, with such an experienced team, it's hard to overreact to three games that probably didn't mean all that much. With all the East teams in Toronto for their bubble city and West teams in Edmonton, there is no such thing as home ice in the 2020 NHL playoffs (haha the Maple Leafs and Oilers would surely agree after both were bounced in the round-robin). Then again, of all the major sports home ice has always meant the least in hockey but it still has to be bizarre to play in front of an empty arena.
Regardless, a win or two in the past week would have been nice for the B's considering that things really ramp up on Tuesday with the start of the NHL playoffs. They no-showed in a 4-1 loss to the Flyers (who surprisingly went 3-0 to become the No. 1 overall seed in the East) last Sunday afternoon. That was followed by a frustrating 3-2 to Tampa Bay on Wednesday afternoon then today's snoozefest. Most alarmingly, the Black and Gold never led in those three contests. Hell, they never even were in front during their lone exhibition game: a 4-1 loss to the Blue Jackets on July 30.
Of course, it's pretty tough to win when you score four total goals in three games and half of those came from Chris Wagner. We all love the Mayor of Walpole but if he is your leading scorer, you are going nowhere fast except home from the postseason. Charlie McAvoy-against Tampa-and Jake DeBrusk-today against Washington-had the other goals if you were keeping track. No Bruins update would be complete without some Tuukka Rask drama and it happened right out of the gate when he was "unfit to play"-the 2020 catch-all term for NHL players-against Philadelphia. He's been OK in his two appearances but he allowed a terrible rebound that led to the late game-winning goal vs. Tampa Bay then he also gave up a backbreaking tally to T.J. Oshie with 16 seconds left in the first period this afternoon vs. Washington. From there, Braden Holtby put together his usual lights out performance vs. Boston, finishing with 30 mostly routine saves. Oh and all-around lowlife Tom Wilson fittingly had the deciding goal for the Caps.
Jaroslav Halak was not sharp against the Flyers and Rask played every game in the playoffs last year, so I don't expect there to be a goalie controversy. Boston's top forward line of Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak were held scoreless in these three games but there's no way they go totally missing like that against Carolina (who swept the Rangers in three games). Zdeno Chara obviously looks all of his 78 years old but hopefully grandpa will pick it up when the games mean something.
I don't believe that you can take much from last season's sweep by the Bruins of Carolina in the Eastern Conference Finals. The Hurricanes were woefully overmatched and thus, the series was never that competitive. If Covid-19 and this current horrifying existence has taught us anything, it's to take nothing for granted. The Penguins got upset by the Canadiens in four games, same as the Oilers against the Blackhawks. Boston will be favored and they should win the series but I doubt it will be a sweep.
Most importantly, with all the terrible things going on all over the world right now, at least we have these wonderful playoff games to take us away for a few hours. For that, I could kiss NHL commissioner Gary Bettman on the lips. Haha just kidding, he's still a smug douchebag.
Predicting what will happen is a waste of time but we all know how prideful and hard-working this Bruins group has been the last few years. After coming so close to winning another Stanley Cup last June vs. St. Louis (only to choke in Game 7 at TD Garden), it was remarkable how quickly they put that behind them to have a killer regular season. None of that means anything now though, it's a new season and they have to be ready to go from Game 1, unlike the general malaise that they've been stuck in for the last week-plus.
Game 1: Bruins vs. Hurricanes, Tuesday at 8 p.m. on NESN
Game 2: Bruins vs. Hurricanes, Thursday at 8 p.m. on NESN
Game 3: Bruins vs. Hurricanes, Saturday at 12 p.m. on NBC
Game 4: Bruins vs. Hurricanes, Monday at 8 p.m. on NESN
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