Eastern Finals, Game One: Bruins Look To Prevent Damage From Hurricanes

The Boston Bruins play game one of the Eastern Conference finals Thursday night at TD Garden.

They're up against the Carolina Hurricanes in the best-of-seven series.

Conor Ryan, the Bruins beat writer at the Boston Sports Journal, spoke with NEPR to give us a sense of the matchup.

Conor Ryan, Boston Sports Journal: It's definitely an interesting mix. It seems like every year in the NHL playoffs, there's always that one team of destiny that comes together at the right time, has the right pieces that are kind of firing on all cylinders.

Definitely, you can't overlook this Carolina Hurricanes team, because they play with a lot of pace. They're a very, very young team, have got plenty of guys who are under the age of 25.

They’ve got a 19-year-old rookie, Andrei Svechnikov, a Russian winger, who's been pretty solid for them.

So they present a lot of challenges, and really like to establish themselves on the forecheck.

They're really, really hard to knock off the puck, [they] fire in a lot of shots, so it's going to be a challenge for the Bruins. It's going to be one of those series where you expect [coach] Bruce Cassidy to really kind of tinker with the lineup, and adjust kind of on the fly, to see what the Hurricanes are gonna throw at the Bruins — because they're going to give him a lot of very different looks as the series progresses.

Carrie Healy, NEPR: The Carolina Hurricanes are far better-rested following a sweep of the Islanders. How much practice and rest time are the Bruins going to have going into the series, and is it going to be enough?

I think right now, the way it's panning out, I believe it's going to be two days off for the Bruins before game one, and at the very least, a little bit better than what the Bruins had last round, where they beat the Toronto Maple Leafs in game seven, and they played the Blue Jackets right after that.

But Bruce Cassidymentioned that it's one of those things where too much rest can really kind of hurt the team in the NHL playoffs.

I think the Bruins would rather have this short break, where they can kind of keep the momentum going. They've already had some guys who were a little bit slow to start the postseason who are off firing on all cylinders right now, so it's really helping out the Bruins to kind of have that short break.

Do you detect any lingering rivalry between the teams from the old Hartford Whaler days of the early Hurricanes?

It seems like the Hurricanes, this year especially, have kind of made it a priority to bring back some of the Hartford roots. I think out of the three games Carolina played the Bruins during the regular season, they wore their throwback Whalers jerseys for two of them.

So it makes for sort of an interesting little facet. I don't think they'll bring those out for the playoffs, but it's definitely an interesting kind of blast from the past.

It's one of those classic rematches people always talk about, you know, fighting for the Adams Trophy and the Prince of Wales Trophy and all that stuff going back to it. [There are] not too many NHL players right now who used to play for the Whalers, but I'm sure the Hurricanes will take any support they'd get.

But I don't think they're going to get too much of a warm reception from Connecticut, that's for sure.

Beyond Bergeron,Krejčí, and Marchand, who are some of the key players to watch for on each of the teams?

I think, for the Bruins, you have to look at what they can get out of their blue line.

And one big loss for the Bruins going into game one is they're not going to have Charlie McAvoy, who is going to be suspended for game one, because of an illegal hit to the head that he delivered to Columbus's Josh Anderson in game six on Monday night. It's going to be a pretty big loss for the Bruins.

Even though Charlie McAvoy is 21 years old, [he's] still a young player. He's really come into his own during this postseason, and he's going to be key in terms of really shutting down the multiple waves Carolina likes to throw at opposing goalies, when you look at just the way they can reload. They activate defensemen up the blue line.

So he's going to be a guy that’s going to be key, once he comes back, to really kind of stop what Carolina is going to bring, which is a lot of shots on goal, a lot of offensive zone pressure.

And then, obviously, another one for the Bruins to look at isTuukka Rask, who has been absolutely outstanding this whole postseason. I mean, he leads all NHL goalies in save percentage at .938. He's been outstanding — he's shutting down high danger shots, all that stuff that you need from a goalie at this time of year. So he's been key.

And then you look at the Carolina Hurricanes. One guy you have to be careful of is Sebastian Aho, who again may not be the star power that some of these other teams have.

But Aho, who's 21, led the Carolina Hurricanes in scoring this year — and for whatever reason, even though he's only been in the league for a few years, he always seems to have the Bruins' number.

I think he has eight goals against the Bruins in nine career games. A guy who can impact down every area of the ice, he's good on the power play, he's lethal on the penalty kill, and has the speed to really kind of burn you in a hurry, which can happen quite a bit, with this Bruins power play where they like to operate a little bit of risk in their game. So he's a guy you really have to keep tabs on both during five-on-five play, and especially during special teams.