One of the million aspects of hockey that makes it a fantastic sport is that it takes a team to win anything of value, unlike say the NBA where you typically just assemble the most talent and let the victories pile up. Coming into this second round playoff series between the Bruins and Islanders, you figured that it would be close but Boston's playoff experience and better goaltending among other things gave them a slight edge. As it turns out, we could not have been much more wrong as the Bruins led 2-1 in the series then proceeded to fall apart in spectacular fashion by losing the last three game culminating with tonight's pathetic 6-2 defeat at the Nassau Coliseum. The Isles move on to face the Lightning (for the second year in a row) in the NHL semifinals while the Bruins head home wondering what the hell just happened?
I get that having a rookie goaltender-Jeremy Swayman-make his first NHL playoff start in an elimination game on the road is far from ideal but would he have been worse than an injured Tuukka Rask (23 saves) who admitted after the loss that he'd need surgery soon to repair some unknown issue? Granted, it hardly mattered who was in net for the B's since their defense was in shambles since Brandon Carlo's concussion but Rask definitely did not help matters. New York is not a great team and I'd be shocked if they win the Stanley Cup this postseason but you have to respect their consistency, toughness and ability to share the workload. Islanders head coach Barry Trotz also owned his matchup with Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy all series long as well. It was 1-1 after the first period before defensive miscues and the lack of a bailout save(s) by Rask doomed the black and gold in a nightmare second period where they were outscored 3-0. Boston cut it to 4-2 early in the third period but their offense disappeared with only five total shots on goal in their final frame of the season along with a pedestrian 25 for the entire contest. Woof.
Center Travis Zajac gave the home team a 1-0 lead at 8:52 of the first period as he put in a juicy rebound that Rask handed to him while Boston's bumbling defense couldn't locate the puck in time before Zajac smashed it into the net. The veteran's first playoff goal for the Islanders was assisted by defenseman Noah Dobson and center Jean-Gabriel Pageau. Left wing Brad Marchand (who was one of the only Bruins that bothered to show up this evening) tied it with a power play goal at 17:36 of the first period. Right wing David Pastrnak faked Isles goaltender Semyon Varlamov (27 saves) out of his skates before sliding the puck over to Marchand for the one-timer. Center David Krejci had the second assist on Marchand's team-leading seventh goal of the postseason (Brad also produced at least one point in every game this series).
Center Brock Nelson had quite a second period for the Islanders as he gave them a 3-1 lead with a pair of goals 7:19 apart. First, he made B's defenseman Matt Grzelcyk look silly by stealing the puck from him and blowing by before finishing a breakaway past Rask. Nelson's fifth goal of the playoffs was assisted by right wing Josh Bailey and defenseman Nick Leddy at 5:20. Rask did himself no favors by playing a puck right to Mike Reilly's skates that Bailey was able to take away and feed to Nelson who this time finished with a backhander at 12:39. If those weren't bad enough, Rask gave up an even worse goal at 16:07 as right wing Kyle Palmieri knocked the puck from Grzelcyk in front of Rask and it went towards the net where somehow Tuukka couldn't stop it. Palmieri's seventh goal of the playoffs was unassisted.
Down 4-1 heading into the third period, you wondered if Cassidy would pull Rask for the second game in a row and put in Swayman to I don't know, maybe get a spark or something but nope, he stubbornly kept Rask in until the end of regulation when he needed an extra skater. Marchand bagged another power play goal at 5:38 that was straight out of the Islanders playbook-outworking his opponents and refusing to let up until the puck went into the net. Krejci and defenseman Charlie McAvoy (who took an elbow earlier in the game from Palmieri that was not called) had the helpers on what turned out to be Boston's last goal of the 2021 season. The Islanders added a pair of empty-net goals in garbage time to make the final score feel fittingly even more embarrassing.
Where do the Bruins go from here? Good question my friend. It's now been 10 long years and counting since they last won the Stanley Cup. Aside from the one that they choked away two years ago against St. Louis, they have failed to reach the conference finals in seven of the last eight seasons. No matter how much you love Rask (and that percentage of Bruins fans dwindles by the day), I think his biggest supporters have to admit that he'll likely never win a Cup here (or probably anywhere else for that matter). He's a great regular season goalie and generally fine in the playoffs but he doesn't have that other gear or next level to reach in these most important moments. With Swayman waiting in the wings, it feels like the right time to finally move on from Rask-who has been a Bruin his entire NHL career-and pair Swayman with a cheap veteran backup goaltender plus Dan Vladar showed enough this season in a limited capacity to fight for that No. 2 role.
Rask, Krejci and left wing Taylor Hall (who went completely missing in the last 3 games with zero combined points) are all unrestricted free agents (along with some less notable players) so those will be the key decisions for B's GM Don Sweeney to make over the next few weeks. I'd say that this group isn't that far away from title contention but I feel like we have overrated them for much of the past decade. Yes, they are usually a playoff team but they do not tend to make much noise once they get here. It took the easiest path imaginable to reach the Stanley Cup Final two years ago and of course, they failed in the most Bruins way possible: losing Game 7 at the TD Garden against yet another inferior opponent. Regardless of what happens with those three guys that are listed above, there are still plenty of quality players (both young and old) remaining on this team; Cassidy is a good coach and Sweeney knows what he's doing so in all likelihood, they will be right back in a similar spot like this next season. The real question is if they can put it all together and get past the second round to be considered a true contender once again or if they are simply cursed to live in this Groundhog's Day like existence year after year.
