The moment all of us Canes fans have been waiting for: who will we be playing in the Eastern Conference Finals?
Well, after last night’s Eastern Conference Semifinals matchup between the Boston Bruins and Columbus Blue Jackets, we know our opponent: the Boston Bruins!
Let me give you a little background on the Bruins, our season series with them, and conclude the article with a brief snippet about the last time we faced the Bruins in the playoffs.
First off, congratulations to the Bruins. They are one of the premier hockey organizations in the NHL, and like us, with the way they have been playing, deserve to be in this position.
In the regular season, the Bruins recorded a record of 49-24-9, earning 107 in the process, one of nine NHL teams to do so. Due to points, they would have been the two seed in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, but that belonged to Washington because they were the Metropolitan Division Champions.
In the postseason, the Bruins came from down 2-3 to beat the Toronto Maple Leafs in their first-round matchup. This past series, after going down 2-1 to the Blue Jackets, the Bruins won three straight games in dominating fashion to take the series, including a 3-0 shutout win last night in Columbus.
The Bruins currently have three guys on their team who have double-digit points this postseason. Brad Marchand leads the way with 13 (five goals, eight assists), David “Pasta” Pastrnak is right behind Marchand with 11 (six goals, five assists), while David Krejci rounds out the top three with 10 (four goals, six assists).
In the regular season, we matched up with the Bruins three times. The first time, on Halloween Eve, we hosted the Bruins, a game in which we lost a close, 3-2 game. We scored a goal in the first and second periods, but the Bruins scored two in the second, and one in the third.
The second matchup, two days before Christmas at PNC Arena, went in our favor. We won a big 5-3 game that came a couple days before our season-turnaround win against the Flyers on New Years’ Eve. In this game against the Bruins, we fell behind 2-1 in the first, but rallied with three second period goals. Boston scored one goal in the second to make it 4-3, but we put the cap on the game with a third period goal.
The third and final matchup, not until the Canes were a serious playoff contender, came on March 5 in Boston, a 4-3 Bruins win. In this game, we took a 1-0 lead into the second period. The Bruins scored two goals in the second period to our one, making it a two-two game going into the third and final period of play. Each team scored a goal in the third, sending the game into overtime. Boston, unfortunately, found the back of the net first, sending them home with a win, a rare game that we lost in March.
The last time that the Canes met the Bruins in the postseason was a significant moment in Canes history: it was the last time that we won a playoff series. If you recall from past postseason Canes articles of mine, Scott Walker scored a Game 7 overtime goal against then-Vezina Trophy finalist Tim Thomas to send the Canes onto the Eastern Conference Finals, where we were swept by the Pittsburgh Penguins, who won the Cup that year.
The Canes will look for better fortunes in this year’s ECF. Will we sweep the Bruins, just like we did to the Islanders last round? Or will it be a more tightly-contested series like the first round?
Game 1 is Thursday night in Boston at 8 P.M., and that game will be broadcast on NBCSN. The rest of the series has not been set yet, but I can imagine that will change once we know the winner of the Sharks-Avalanche and Stars-Blues series, which are both going to Game 7’s.
Are you ready to Take Warning in our biggest matchup of the season?
