SUNRISE, Fla. — The Bruins are staring down two vastly totally different eventualities on Sunday evening once they face the Florida Panthers in a Game 7 on the Garden that already has B’s followers white-knuckling their arm chairs.
Behind Door No. 1? It’s the chance to show they’re the higher crew, which they’re. They have a probability to be taught from their errors, from the teaching employees on down (there have been a number of whoppers), and are available out on the opposite aspect stronger and smarter for having gone by means of the hearth.
What is behind Door No. 2 is decidedly much less palatable. From an area perspective, a loss in Game 7 would be part of this crew on the hip with the 1971 Bruins as a colossal playoff flop. Of a more moderen classic, it will hyperlink them to the 2019 Tampa Bay Lightning. Both groups had record-setting common seasons solely to be bounced within the first spherical.
But there’s a massive distinction between these B’s and each the ’71 Black and Gold ’19 Bolts. The latter two groups had been nonetheless ascendant franchises who may and did make good on their do-over alternatives.
For the 2022-23 B’s, that is it. Age and a coming wage cap crunch dictate that this crew will not less than be partially detonated.
Yeah, there’s fairly a little bit of stress concerned on Sunday night, much more than your common Game 7. And it’s all on the Bruins.
So how did we get right here?
The B’s had been in full management of this sequence, up 3-1 with an opportunity to shut out the sequence on residence ice in Game 5. Then they determined to get cute. With the return of Patrice Bergeron from an harm he suffered in Game 82, coach Jim Montgomery went with unfamiliar line mixtures. He cut up up Bergeron and Brad Marchand – a pairing that’s been working for a dozen years – to strive Bergeron with David Pastrnak and Tyler Bertuzzi, a trio that had by no means skated collectively as a unit.
It regarded prefer it. They acquired hemmed in their very own finish and gave up the primary aim of the sport when Bertuzzi threw the puck into his personal slot. They would play catch-up all evening and, it ought to be famous that as loopy as this sequence has been, the crew that scores the primary aim has gained all six video games.
There was additionally the questionable option to play rookie Jakub Lauko over Trent Frederic, who had undergone his personal playoff baptismal fireplace final season however didn’t get an opportunity to indicate he’d realized something from it. Lauko dedicated two penalties, the second a third-period name that led to a different Florida go-ahead aim.
And there have been indicators that Linus Ullmark was tiring in that Game 5. All three regulation objectives had been Grade A alternatives, however when he’s been on his recreation, he would have stopped not less than certainly one of them. It very effectively may have been bodily fatigue that led to his psychological mistake on the giveaway that led to additional time game-winner.
Game 6 offered a terrific probability to lean on the depth about which the membership has rightly boasted all 12 months. From our standpoint, it gave the impression to be the proper time to start out Jeremy Swayman, who would have been completely able to giving a successful efficiency, particularly handed 5 objectives with which to work. Even in the event that they’d misplaced, they might have come again with a rested Ullmark for Game 7. But the collaborative choice was made to stay with Ullmark, and he gave up six. Now the selection for Game 7 is both an apparently weary-looking Ullmark or Swayman, who hasn’t performed since April 13.
One extra Game 6 personnel selection that backfired was inserting Connor Clifton for Matt Grzelcyk. Clifton is definitely a gamer, however from the get-go it appeared he was making an attempt too exhausting to make an affect. In the primary interval, he was whistled for charging and had a expensive turnover that led to the Panthers’ second aim. In the third interval, his clear try was stopped on the blue line and resulted within the GWG. He was minus-3 and the Clifton-Derek Forbort pairing has not clicked prefer it did in final 12 months’s post-season.
Yes, errors have been made. There have additionally been some straight-up subpar performances, equivalent to Hampus Lindholm’s 0-0-0 effort up to now.
But the B’s nonetheless have an opportunity to flush all that. And if you happen to’re on the lookout for a optimistic growth from Game 6, it’s that the dynamic model of David Pastrnak (two objectives, seven photographs) returned. Perhaps that was tied to massive brother David Krejci being again within the lineup, maybe not. But Pastrnak has the power to tip the scales within the Bruins’ favor by himself.
A win in Game 7 might be cathartic and will set the B’s up for a long term, similar to first-round Game 7 wins did in 2011, 2013 and 2019.
A loss can be calamitous. If that is certainly the final seasons for estimable Bergeron and Krejci, they don’t need to exit that approach.
Source: www.bostonherald.com