Playoff Takeaways: Bruins push Panthers to the brink as lineup gambles backfire

It was never going to be easy for Florida.

After a late-season march saw the Panthers claw their way back into the post-season picture, the wild-card club was dealt the toughest hand on offer with their first-round match-up: a date with the rolling, record-setting Boston Bruins. But while they seemed heavily outmatched by the B’s and their absurdly dominant regular season, the Panthers had a wild card of their own in the lineup: netminder Alex Lyon.

It was Lyon who took over the net down the home stretch of the regular season, Lyon who helped Florida reel off six straight wins to book the club’s post-season ticket. If they had any chance of getting by Boston, the thinking went, it would come down to the 30-year-old continuing that magical run through the first round.

In the end, it just didn’t shake out like that for Lyon or the Panthers.

After three games that saw him fall back to earth in the face of Boston’s savvy offence, Lyon was returned to the bench for Game 4. In his place, as the Panthers tried to even up a series quickly slipping away, the net was turned back to Florida’s $10-million man, Sergei Bobrovsky.

It’s for precisely these situations that the Panthers handed Bobrovsky a hefty $70-million deal back in 2019 — for the big moments, under the post-season lights, with the season all but on the line. It was here that Florida needed the oft-maligned netminder to rise to the occasion and steal one for them.

Again, it just didn’t shake out like that.

After getting three goals by Lyon in Game 1, another three in Game 2, and four in Game 3, the Bruins tagged Bobrovsky for five goals Sunday afternoon in Game 4, the veteran stopping just 25 of 30 shots as Boston took a commanding 3-1 series lead.

As they’ve done to netminders around the league all year, the Bruins got to Bobrovsky every which way.

In the first half of the game, it was Boston taking the puck hard to his doorstep. First there was Brad Marchand, cleaning up a messy man-advantage play that saw Bobrovsky stretch out for a save on Tyler Bertuzzi, only to leave the puck sitting in the crease to be shovelled home. A period later, there was Jake DeBrusk, taking a superb cross-ice feed from Dmitry Orlov and redirecting it into the cage from the top of the crease.

By the time the third period came, and his side was down 2-1, the game got away from Bobrovsky.

It was Bertuzzi, swiping at a point shot to redirect it through the netminder’s five-hole. It was DeBrusk, again, capitalizing after Bobrovsky tried to flash the glove, but instead miscalculated, letting the puck fall to the crease for an easy tap-in. And then it was Taylor Hall, beating Radko Gudas with a one-touch move at centre ice, flying in on a breakaway, going backhand-forehand to get the veteran ‘tender sliding. The former Oiler added an empty-netter to seal the 6-2 win.

Florida did little to help out Bobrovsky as he made his first start in nearly a month, Boston feeding off turnovers and defensive miscues, but it would be tough to say the highest-paid netminder playing held up his end of the bargain.

On the other side of the rink, Linus Ullmark turned aside 41 of 43 shots, and had the Bruins bench smiling ear to ear as he was tossed for trying to drop the gloves with Matthew Tkachuk.

Canes keep battling through injuries, racking up W’s

The Canes similarly entered these playoffs with a tall task ahead of them, less because of the opponent in front of them and more because of their own health.

Coming into their first-round bout with the New York Islanders, Carolina was already down marquee off-season acquisition Max Pacioretty, who missed the majority of the season with a torn Achilles; key offensive leader Andrei Svechnikov, who underwent knee surgery a month before the post-season; and starting netminder Frederik Andersen, sidelined with illness and injury, pushing backup Antti Raanta into the No. 1 role.

In Game 2, it got worse, a hand injury knocking Teuvo Teravainen out of the lineup for the rest of the series, and perhaps beyond. Sunday, in Game 4, Jack Drury joined the ill-fated club, the young centreman crushed by Isles defender Ryan Pulock and ruled out for the rest of the tilt.

Still, even as the injuries have continued to mount, Carolina just keeps on winning. 

On Sunday, the Canes did it by using the Isles’ aggression against them. 

Five minutes into the first period of Game 4, with his Islanders already on the penalty kill, Pulock buried Drury to earn himself a trip to the box, opening the door for Seth Jarvis, who tallied on the 5-on-3. Before that opening period was through, Matt Martin earned a roughing call for an unnecessary hit at the final buzzer, putting the Canes on the power play to start the second — Carolina capitalized again, Stefan Noesen and Marty Necas combining to extend Carolina’s lead.

Before the Isles could get on the board once, Rod Brind’Amour’s club tagged them twice more, this time punishing the aggression in New York’s hunt for offence — two times, the Isles’ defencemen tried to join the rush or push the play forward in search of a goal, and two times the Canes forced a turnover, took the puck back to Ilya Sorokin, and fluttered the twine.

But there was perhaps no greater example of Carolina’s ability to battle through injury woes than the Game 4 performance of Canes winger Mackenzie MacEachern.

Granted the chance to get into the lineup for his first NHL game this season — that is, first in the regular season or playoffs — due to injury, MacEachern responded with an assist on the eventual game winner and a goal of his own to ice it late in the third.

Roope Hintz continues quiet domination as Stars pull even

In a series that features new-school superstars like Jason Robertson and Kirill Kaprizov, seasoned stars like Jamie Benn and Mats Zuccarello, it’s Roope Hintz who’s quietly been the offensive story of the Stars-Wild series.

Through four games, Hintz has amassed a team-leading four goals and eight points for Dallas. That offensive outburst has him not only head and shoulders above everyone else in this first-round meeting, but above nearly everyone else in these playoffs, his eight points tying him with Mitch Marner for the post-season scoring lead, while his four goals sit one back of Chris Kreider in that post-season race, too.

And as Hintz has excelled, so too have his Stars. 

In Dallas’s first win of this series, Game 2, the 26-year-old dominated with a hat trick and an assist, leading his club to a 7-3 win after they’d dropped Game 1 in double overtime. He played a key role in the club pulling out their second win of the series on Sunday too, with Hintz registering a helper on all three of Dallas’s goals as the club won 3-2 and tied the series at two games apiece.

The production couldn’t have come at a better time for the Stars. Through the opening four games of the team’s post-season run, Jason Robertson — who finished the regular season as Dallas’ leading scorer, and the sixth-highest scorer in the league overall, with 109 points to his name — has largely been kept in check, with the young sniper managing just one goal so far. 

In need of heroics elsewhere in the lineup, Hintz has stepped up. After a career year that saw him put up 37 goals and 75 points through 73 games, the Tampere, Finland native now sits just two points shy of Dallas’s record for most points in a best-of-seven series, with franchise stalwarts Mike Modano (’03), Sergei Zubov (’03) and Jamie Benn (2016) all having reached 10 points in a single series before. 

Hintz will have at least two more games to get there before this first-round bout with Minnesota is through. His next chance comes Tuesday, back home.