The Bruins are definitely happy to see the round-robin seeding games come to an end as they finish the quick set of games with no wins and are very fortunate to not have immediately gone in to a play-in series as the rust of their game is glaring in the spotlight.
Boston was breezing toward the best record in the NHL before the pandemic pause, but the league’s tweaked playoff rules created round-robin seeding games to determine the top four seeds and the Bruins lost all three of theirs, including Sunday’s 2-1, loss to the Washington Capitals.
Boston will be the No. 4 seed and face the No. 6 Carolina Hurricanes in a rematch of last year’s Eastern Conference finals. The Bruins swept last year’s series and outscored the Hurricanes, 17-5. They are 4-1 all time against the Hurricanes/Hartford Whalers organization. Carolina stunned the Bruins in 2009.
The No. 6 seeded Hurricanes made quick work of the Rangers in the three games. They’ll likely arrive rested and confident after a dominant effort. The Bruins and Carolina had two more regular season games scheduled when the season stopped so they played just once in the regular season a 2-0 Boston win on Dec. 3. Jaroslav Halak made 24 stops.
Washington will be the No. 3 seed and play the New York Islanders.
Ondrej Kase got on the scoresheet for the Bruins in his first game since March. On a break in, He alertly poked the puck through a defenseman’s legs ahead to Jake DeBrusk. The puck was slightly behind the left wing, but DeBrusk reached back and pulled it ahead into a shot all in one motion. He beat Braden Holtby with 9:30 left to cut Boston’s deficit to 2-1.
The Bruins have to be glad to face Holtby in the round robin seeing games instead of an elimination situation. The soon-to-turn 31-year-old Capitals goalie has own the Bruins in his career.
He’s 18-4 in regular season games against the Bruins with a 1.98 goals against average and 9.39 save percentage. That includes 2014-15 when he stopped 88 pucks in three shutouts vs. Boston. He’s 4-2 vs. the Bruins in the playoffs with all of that coming in 2012 when he was an unknown fill-in that eliminated Boston in six games.
He had 30 saves, Sunday, while Tuukka Rask stopped 23.
The first-round games are scheduled to begin Tuesday at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena.