The NHL regular season is coming to a close, and the Boston Bruins have four games left.
Starting with Sunday’s matchup against the archrival Montreal Canadiens, the B’s have one week to get a final tune-up and determine their first-round playoff opponent. In about two months, one of 16 playoff teams will raise the Stanley Cup.
With the return of David Pastrnak, Hampus Lindholm and Linus Ullmark to the lineup in Saturday’s 3-1 matinee win at home over the New York Rangers, a potential playoff opponent, Boston got some swagger back. The trio was missed while they were out of action, but all three made immediate and important contributions to their team’s 48th victory.
Here are five questions we’ll look for the team to answer before the postseason kicks off on May 2.
Who will take the net for Game 1 of the playoffs?
The good news for the Bruins is that they have two strong options between Ullmark and rookie Jeremy Swayman, and a pair of competitors who seem to genuinely support each other.
Both have played 39 games, Ullmark has 24 wins, while Swayman has 22. Swayman’s statistics are slightly better, but when looking at how the two have played over the past month, the Swedish veteran has the edge in consistency and success.
Ullmark, who had been knocked out of the lineup after taking a deflected shot off the chin while against Ottawa on April 14, made some impressive saves (30 total) in his first game back, including a flashy catch on former Bruins forward and UMass product Frank Vatrano (Longmeadow, Mass.). He gave up a power play goal to Mika Zibanejad in the third period, but was poised, focused and continued his strong play going back to the beginning of March.
Look for coach Bruce Cassidy to split the duties between his goalies to keep both fresh through Thursday’s final regular season game in Toronto. After that, unless he suffers another injury or setback, it looks like Ullmark will likely be the starter for Game 1.
How does the power play get going?
Losing Pastrnak for eight games had a detrimental impact on Boston’s offense. He came back Saturday with a goal and assist at even strength, his 499th and 500th career points. However, the B’s are mired in an 0-for-31 slump with the man advantage. At times on Saturday, they got some good looks with Patrice Bergeron playing his normal bumper position in the middle of the ice by the hashmarks, while Pastrnak tried to set up for his patented one-timer from the top of the left circle, but never got much going in three power play tries.
The keys to getting the power play going will be to keep the key personnel moving their feet and pushing pucks to the net. Bergeron had a couple of quality scoring chances on the second power play Saturday, denied by a Igor Shesterkin save and Jacob Trouba shot block. Often you just need some luck to find the back of the net and that can get a special teams unit in gear.
Boston has the personnel, especially when Charlie McAvoy uses his quickness to move laterally along the blue line to change shot angles or pinches down from the point to get the puck to the net for deflections and rebounds.
With Pastrnak back, look for the power play to funnel pucks to him in his prime scoring position. He may need to knock off a little rust on the first few shots he tries to generate off the one-timer, but he’s too skilled and lethal a weapon to not get back to form quickly.
Will Brad Marchand end his scoring drought?
Where Pastrnak will need to get his game conditioning and timing down in this final week of the regular season, Brad Marchand needs to find his confidence after going nine games without a goal. He had a chance to end that drought with an empty-net chance late against the Rangers, but hit the side of the cage from inside the zone. It’s a play the top-scoring left wing normally makes with ease, but it didn’t go, to his visible frustration.
The veteran has been trying to do too much of late, and it could be that he’s thinking too much about scoring. The best option for him is to keep using his speed/quickness to gain time, space and separation in the offensive zone and not pass up chances to fire pucks on the net. He’s always been a bit of a streaky scorer, but with 350 career goals, he’s also proven that he can get hot and score in bunches.
Marchand should break through at some point this week, and even if he doesn’t, the playoffs allow for a reset and a clean slate.
Does the middle-to-lower part of the roster keep scoring?
The B’s continue to get secondary offense from the depth of the roster, and that trend must continue.
Weymouth's Charlie Coyle (16 goals, 43 points) is having his best offensive season since he tallied 18 and a career-high 51 points in 2017. His nine goals and 16 points in 24 playoff games in helping the B's reach the 2019 Stanley Cup final serve as an important reminder of what the 30-year-old center can do on the third line.
Trent Frederic went to the net Saturday after Connor Clifton threw a long pass off the back wall that Craig Smith skated into and shot into Shesterkin. The Rangers star netminder couldn’t control the rebound, and Frederic’s knuckler found daylight between the goalie’s arm and body, leaking into the net for an important insurance goal.
Fourth-liners Curtis Lazar and Marc McLauglin (he was out of the lineup Saturday) have also been able to provide some extra pop in the lineup to support the top-six production. Boston’s scoring had tailed off since losing Pastrnak, so getting him back seemed to restore balance again to all four lines.
The addition of Hampus Lindholm (he played a team-high 24:41 Saturday in his first game back after missing seven) has given the team a quality top-four on defense, but depth guys like Clifton and Mike Reilly will have their roles to play. Both need to be ready to step up this week, especially with Lindholm coming back from a lower-body injury that is probably not fully right. The Bruins cannot afford to lose him again.
Can the team stay healthy?
With so many games in a compressed timeline, watch for Cassidy and his staff to lengthen the bench. You might even see a healthy scratch here and there, but with three full rest days before the first game of the playoffs, it might be best to keep the team going.
The nature of hockey means that anything can happen, and fluky injuries have happened in final games over the past several seasons. So the coaching staff will stress player awareness and not putting themselves in a bad spot to take a big hit along the boards, where concussions can be an issue.
When this roster is fully healthy, the Bruins can skate with anyone. With Pastrnak, Lindholm and Ullmark back, fans got a sobering glimpse into how much those three mean to the team, and how much more effective the Bruins were in beating the 51-win Rangers with a full lineup.
