How does a team like the Boston Bruins become as sturdy as it is? With fantastic reinforcements.
Depth is one thing, but sometimes you’d swear the Bruins are just showing off. Their playoff magic man, David Krejci, has yet to register a point through three games with the Detroit Red Wings, which is absolutely no problem because young defencemen Dougie Hamilton and Torey Krug have combined for three points, while Jordan Caron and Justin Florek—two guys whose total Stanley Cup playoff experience doesn’t add up to 10 games—have also pitched in a pair of tallies.
Deflated yet, Detroit?
Game three, won 3-0 by Boston for a 2-1 series lead, was a perfect example of the Bruins’ remarkable ability to get contributions from up and down the lineup. Hamilton—still just 20 years old—opened the scoring, before fourth-liner Caron extended the advantage. In game two, it was Florek—with a whopping four career regular season games’ worth of experience behind him—who jumped on an early mistake by the Wings to make it 1-0 Boston.
Reilly Smith, a 23-year-old seeing the first playoff action of his career, also has a pair of points, while undrafted freshman defenceman Kevan Miller made his post-season debut in game two and has chipped in an assist while playing a hard-nosed brand of hockey for nearly 20 minutes a night.
Zoom out further and you’ll recall last year’s playoffs, when Krug—fresh out of the American Hockey League—sparked the offence from the blueline with four goals in his first five playoff games. Krug wasn’t even classified as an NHL rookie until this season.
So what happens when Krejci, who led the Stanley Cup playoffs in scoring in both 2011 and ’13, gets going? Well, that’s when it becomes crystal clear why Boston was the league’s top team this year and has been to the final twice in the past three seasons.
Other Eastern Conference musings:
— Before the trade deadline, the Rangers essentially decided that, of their pending unrestricted free agents, they were more willing to meet the demands of defenceman Dan Girardi than captain Ryan Callahan. So far, that decision is working out pretty well. In addition to his steady defensive play, Girardi pitched in a goal and an assist in the Blueshirts’ 4-1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday night, as the Rangers used a game three win to seize a 2-1 series advantage. And after a frustrating end to the regular season with New York, Martin St. Louis—acquired, of course, from Tampa Bay in the trade that sent Callahan south—now leads the team with five playoff points. And while it might not be an entirely fair comparison given his club’s overall struggles, Callahan failed to register a point in his team’s four-game loss to the Montreal Canadiens.
— Speaking of the Bolts, give that team credit for showing resiliency to the end of a tough series. It would have been really easy to throw in the towel when the Habs went up 3-1 in front of a rollicking crowd in the second period Tuesday night, especially in a series where nothing seemed to go Tampa’s way. But full marks to the Bay Boys for fighting hard in the third to tie things up before Max Pacioretty’s last-minute game-winner. The Lightning are a young team with a megastar in Steven Stamkos, another one potentially coming in Jonathan Drouin and a goalie, in Ben Bishop, who was among the league’s best this year. Who knows how this series would have played out had Bishop been healthy. Either way, the Bolts figure to be back in the mix next year, especially if they build a better blueline around Victor Hedman.