Boston Bruins: 3 exciting takeaways from first round win over Capitals
No. 1: The Boston Bruins defense stepped up in a big way
After letting Zdeno Chara and Torey Krug walk in free agency last season, the Bruins defense was the expected weak spot of this team.
Yet the weakness of this team stepped up in a huge way, and was pivotal in shifting the momentum of this series from Washington’s side to Boston’s.
The top pairing of Charlie McAvoy and Matt Grzelcyk have really stepped up to have big impacts on both ends of the ice.
McAvoy in particular looks like he’s ready to step up and become one of the top defenseman in the entire NHL, as he’s becoming more and more involved on the offensive end and power play unit, which complements his defensive skills perfectly. And Grzelcyk has looked great after making the jump from the third line on defense to the top line, and he’s stepped up to take Krug’s vacant spot on the top power play unit too.
On the second line, Mike Reilly has slotted in and been a perfect partner for Brandon Carlo. The Bruins spent much of the first half of the season searching for the right partner alongside Carlo, before finally swallowing their pride and deciding to make a move at the trade deadline for Reilly.
Reilly’s a solid player on both sides of the ice, but his offensive inclination suits Carlo’s more defensive style of play quite nicely, similar to the top line.
The third line has been much more up in the air, but the next man up mentality resulted in some great performances. It started off as Kevan Miller and Jeremy Lauzon, but both guys would eventually succumb to injury throughout the series.
Lauzon would suffer an injury in Game 1 and miss the rest of the series, and even then he struggled for most of the game. He was replaced by Connor Clifton, who ended up having a great series. He immediately came in and spent the most time guarding Alex Ovechkin, but did a great job limiting him after he ran riot in Game 1 against Lauzon.
Clifton and Miller seemed set to be the third line for the rest of the series, until Miller was on the receiving end of a questionable hit from Dmitry Orlov. Miller ended up in the hospital, and his return in the second round is up in the air as a result.
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That meant that Jarred Tinordi got the call, and he delivered in Game 5. The big d man stepped up and filled in admirably on the third line, and may be called upon again come next series. It was great to see some of the reserve guys step up and make big contributions to help the Bruins pull out the series victory.
The biggest key for Boston moving forward is their defensive performance. If Boston’s defense can prevent teams from creating consistent pressure like they did against Washington, they will be golden for the rest of their playoff run. They have given themselves some time off to heal, so hopefully the unit will be good to go by the first puck drop of the second round, because the Bruins will need them.