The call here is still Bruins over Carolina. It may now take six or seven games after Sunday’s Hurricanes win, but my confidence is still high that the B’s are going to make it to the Eastern Conference finals.
The B's were coasting a bit coming into Game 2, an understandable development given the relative ease with which they had won their first five playoff games. Not only had they not lost in the postseason heading into Sunday, they had trailed only twice. And both times (against the Canadiens), they erased those deficits before the period was up. So Game 2 was the inevitable wakeup call. I expect the Bruins to reestablish themselves on the road. They're the better team. They'll show it. Etc.
But let’s say, just for the sake bleeps and giggles, I’m here to play the alarmist. You know, be a contrarian. It’s not a role that comes naturally to me, but I’ll give it a shot. Where would I focus my concern?
Two places:
1. Zdeno Chara vs. Eric Staal
Other than goalie Tim Thomas (naturally), there is no more important player on the ice for the Bruins than Chara. He’s the neutralizer, the shut-down guy, the one player who opponents must game-plan around. If he doesn’t play well, the Bruins aren’t going anywhere. Everyone knows this.
And on Sunday Chara was a big, fat minus-3. True, it’s not like he was awful. And it’s not like Carolina solved him. But for the first time this postseason, the big defenseman was part of the problem, not the solution. He was certainly the one most responsible for the biggest of B’s misplay of the night, a Matt Cullen short-handed strike in the second period that made it a 2-0 game. It was Chara’s bad pass at the point that was intercepted by Chad LaRose, and it was Chara’s miscommunication with fellow defenseman Dennis Wideman that led to a wide open Matt Cullen sweeping into the slot and burying LaRose’s pass for the shorty.
Chara was also bumping with Staal down low earlier in the second period when he allowed a pass out to defenseman Joe Corvo, who beat Tim Thomas through a screen for the first goal of the game. The final Carolina goal into an open net was hardly Chara’s fault, but the bottom line remains the same. Chara at a minus-3 is simply an impossible number for the B’s to overcome, because that means the opponents’ best players are getting on the board. And that’s what happened on Sunday, as Staal, who had been held without a point by the B’s in the previous five meetings (four regular season, one playoff), finally broke through with a goal (the empty-netter) and the assist on Corvo’s goal.
Like all other coaches, Carolina’s Paul Maurice did his best to circumvent Chara, double-shifting Staal on a line with Sergei Samsonov and Tuomo Ruutu. But as the game wore on, Staal remained with usual linemates Ray Whitney and Eric Cole, the latter of whom at least tried to get down low a nd battle with Chara. It’s a role that Montreal’s George Laraque failed miserably at in the first series. Let’s see how Cole does in this one. Then again, Maurice is going to have the last change at home these next two games, so if Chara is going to be chasing that line around, he’ll have to do it after jumping over the boards first.
Has Staal gotten untracked? Has Chara been exposed? Way too early to tell. But here’s what I do know: If Chara at minus-3 and Staal at plus-2 is a trend, the B’s are in trouble.
2. Cam Ward.
This is bigger trouble, obviously.
If the Carolina goalie is going to do to the Bruins what he did to Michael Ryder on that bid from the doorstep in the third period, forget it. Nothing else matters.
Just know that he’s done it before. Three years ago, as a rookie, he took a Carolina team not appreciably different than this one all the way to a Stanley Cup championship. He has never lost a postseason series. He has a career 2.12 goal against average in the playoffs (2.08 this year). He’s legit.
So is Tim Thomas, but if you’re asking who is capable of greater heights, I think we’d all have to go with Ward based on track record.
Scared yet?
Despite all of the above, I’m not.
Not yet, anyway.
Felger can be seen on the ``Baseball Show’’ Saturdays at 9 a.m. on Comcast Sportsnet, with a simulcast on WEEI, and on ``Sports Sunday’’ Sundays at 10 p.m. on Comcast Sportsnet. Reach him at mfelger@weei.com. His mailbag appears Thursdays.
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