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Boston Bruins: 3 keys to calming Carolina in 1st round

By Sam Minton

TORONTO, ONTARIO - AUGUST 09: Tom Wilson #43 of the Washington Capitals celebrates after scoring a goal on Tuukka Rask #40 of the Boston Bruins during the third period in an Eastern Conference Round Robin game during the 2020 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at Scotiabank Arena on August 09, 2020 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Andre Ringuette/Freestyle Photo/Getty Images)
TORONTO, ONTARIO - AUGUST 09: Tom Wilson #43 of the Washington Capitals celebrates after scoring a goal on Tuukka Rask #40 of the Boston Bruins during the third period in an Eastern Conference Round Robin game during the 2020 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at Scotiabank Arena on August 09, 2020 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Andre Ringuette/Freestyle Photo/Getty Images) /
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The Boston Bruins celebrate a goal by Charlie McAvoy #73 (Photo by Andre/Ringuette/Getty Images) /

The Boston Bruins go up against the Carolina Hurricanes in Round One of the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Here is what they need to do if they want to advance.

The Boston Bruins will face a familiar foe in the first round of the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Instead of waiting until the Eastern Conference Finals as they did in 2019, Boston goes up against the Carolina Hurricanes right off the bat.

This will be an interesting matchup as Boston swept Carolina in 2019. It seems unlikely that they will do that in 2020.

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The Bruins struggled in the round-robin going winless. Players have said that they weren’t considering these games that important, but it is still troublesome how Boston was playing.

Bruins fans will be hoping that Boston can flip the switch and start playing better. They were the best team in hockey prior to the pandemic. Hopefully, now that the playoffs are underway the Bruins will remind us just how good they are. If they don’t they will leave a lot of fans disappointed and some changes could be made.

So after the disaster that was the round-robin, here are the keys to the first round for the Boston Bruins.

Boston Bruins first line needs to be better

One of the most stunning takeaways from the round-robin games was just how poorly Boston’s first line played. In three games, Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, and David Pastrnak were only able to muster up one point and had a combined rating of negative seven.

The national media loves to call these guys the “perfection line” but they were far from perfect. They got outplayed by Boston’s fourth line. That is inexcusable.

Particularly the pressure seems to be on Pastrnak. He has been behind the ball since practices have started and hasn’t looked too great to boot.

A quality showing in the first round will make Bruins fans forget about everything that happened leading up into the bubble. Pasta should also have a chip on his shoulder after not being named a Hart Trophy finalist.

If Boston wants to advance past the first round, the first line needs to lead the way.

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