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Tag: Charlie McAvoy

  • Stanley Cup Final Game 1 – St. Louis Blues v. Boston Bruins

    Stanley Cup Final Game 1 – St. Louis Blues v. Boston Bruins

    St. Louis Blues v. Boston Bruins

    Game 1

     

    Game Recap:

    The time has finally come for the Stanley Cup Final to begin and with both the Boston Bruins and St. Louis Blues getting some time to lick their wounds from the past three rounds, are ready to play for the holy grail itself. To start the game both teams would get physical right out of the gate that would also feature two really good scoring opportunities for the Bruins. However, it would be the Blues after a failed powerplay that would score the first goal of the Final as Brayden Schenn would take advantage of the Blues aggressive play and wrist the puck past Tuukka Rask to make it 1-0 for the Blues. The Blues would give the Bruins two powerplay opportunities which saw Marcus Johansson come close to tying the game, only to hit the post instead. The Blues are doing a good job of breaking out of their zone and entering into the Bruins zone, while on the other side of the coin, the Bruins have been doing a good job of creating odd man rushes and creating scoring chances off of them.

     

    Heading into the second Schenn would strike again this time intercepting a poorly made pass by Charlie McAvoy, and then passing it to Vladimir Tarasenko in the slot to score his 9th of the playoffs and a 2-0 lead exactly one minute into the period. However, the Bruins would respond as Sean Kuraly would throw the puck to the net and Connor Clifton would deflect the puck into the open net to cut the deficit to one. Later in the period the Blues would shoot themselves in the foot as they gave the Bruins two more powerplay opportunities, and the second one was really dumb penalty that Oskar Sundqvist took that leads to McAvoy taking the puck in from the neutral zone and wristing it past Jordan Binnington to tie the game at two. The Blues looked sloppy and undisciplined, while the Bruins looked like they were a well oiled machine outshooting the Blues 18-3.

     

    In the third period the Bruins would continue with their dominating play, and a little over five minutes into the period it would be Sean Kuraly tucking the puck past Binnington to give the Bruins their first lead of the game at 3-2. Then with the goalie pulled late in the third, Brad Marchand would get the empty net goal to seal the deal and give the Bruins the 4-2 victory over the Blues to take the 1-0 series lead.

     

    The Blues became very undisciplined after the first period and really got away from their game after Tarasenko scored to make it 2-0. The Bruins were able to take over the game after that point and really control the tempo and score four unanswered goals to take Game 1.

     

    Lineups:

    St. Louis Blues:

    Jaden Schwartz — Brayden Schenn — Vladimir Tarasenko

    Sammy Blais — Ryan O’Reilly — David Perron

    Pat Maroon — Tyler Bozak — Robert Thomas

    Ivan Barbashev — Oskar Sundqvist — Alexander Steen

    Joel Edmundson — Alex Pietrangelo

    Jay Bouwmeester — Colton Parayko

    Carl Gunnarsson — Robert Bortuzzo

    Jordan Binnington

    Jake Allen

    Scratched: Robby Fabbri, Michael Del Zotto, Zach Sanford, Mackenzie MacEachern, Chris Thorburn, Ville Husso

    Injured: Vince Dunn (upper body)

     

    Boston Bruins:

    Brad Marchand — Patrice Bergeron — David Pastrnak

    Jake DeBrusk — David Krejci — David Backes

    Marcus Johansson — Charlie Coyle — Danton Heinen

    Joakim Nordstrom — Sean Kuraly — Noel Acciari

    Zdeno Chara — Charlie McAvoy

    Torey Krug — Brandon Carlo

    Matt Grzelcyk — Connor Clifton

    Tuukka Rask

    Jaroslav Halak

    Scratched: John Moore, Steven Kampfer, Karson Kuhlman

    Injured: Chris Wagner (upper body), Kevan Miller (lower body)

     

    First Period:

    Bruins Penalty – 3:37 – Sean Kuraly 2 minutes for Tripping

    Blues Goal – 7:23 – Brayden Schenn (3) from Jaden Schwartz (5) and Jay Boumeester (6)

    Blues Penalty – 13:15 – David Perron 2 minutes for Tripping

    Blues Penalty – 17:45 – Robert Thomas 2 minutes for Hooking

     

    End of 1st – STL – 1       BOS – 0

    Shots              08                08

    Faceoffs         08                06

    Hits               12                  11

    PP                 0/1                 0/2

     

    Second Period:

    Blues Goal – 1:00 – Vladimir Tarasenko (9) from Brayden Schenn (6)

    Bruins Goal – 2:16 – Connor Clifton (2) from Sean Kuraly (4) and Joakim Nordstrom (3)

    Blues Penalty – 5:25 – Joel Edmundson 2 minutes for High Sticking

    Blues Penalty – 11:04 – Oskar Sundqvist 2 minutes for Cross Checking

    Bruins PPG – 12:41 – Charlie McAvoy (2) from unassisted

     

    End of 2nd – STL – 2        BOS – 2

    Shots               11                 26

    Faceoffs          19                 17

    Hits                 21                  21

    PP                   0/1                  1/4

     

    Third Period:

    Bruins Goal – 5:21 – Sean Kuraly (3) from Noel Acciari (2) and Zdeno Chara (3)

    Bruins Penalty – 6:55 – David Krejci 2 minutes for Illegal Check to the Head

    Blues Penalty – 13:28 – Sammy Blais 2 minutes for Interference

    Bruins ENG – 18:11 – Brad Marchand (8) from unassisted

     

    End of 3rd – STL – 2         BOS – 4

    Shots              19                   38

    Faceoffs        26                    31

    Hits               33                     32

    PP                 0/2                    1/5

     

    Next Up:

    Game 2 – BOS Leads 1-0

     

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  • Eastern Conference Finals Preview – Carolina Hurricanes v. Boston Bruins

    Eastern Conference Finals Preview – Carolina Hurricanes v. Boston Bruins

    Eastern Conference Finals

    Carolina Hurricanes v. Boston Bruins

     

    Regular Season Series:

    CAR 1-0-1 (Playoffs 8-3)

    BOS 2-1-0 (Playoffs 8-5)

     

    How they got here:

    Carolina defeated the Washington Capitals 4-3 in the first round, and then swept the New York Islanders 4-0 in the second round.

     

    Boston defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-3 in the first round, and then defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets 4-2 in the second round.

     

    A Deeper Look at the Series:

    Offense:

    For the Carolina Hurricanes this postseason they had a lot of players playing in the playoffs for the first time in their careers, and outside of the veteran leadership of Jordan Staal and Justin Williams they have also received contributions from their young stars of Teuvo Teravainen and Sebastian Aho. The biggest surprise this season has been the rise of rookie forward Warren Foegele who has recorded 5 goals and 4 assists for 9 points in the postseason so far.

     

    For the veteran Boston Bruins they have received contributions from all of their top players including Brad Marchand who leads the way with 5 goals and 8 assists for 13 points this postseason. However, despite their contributions this postseason, the Columbus Blue Jackets last round showed how you can keep the top players of the Bruins quite for an extended amout of time throughout the series. Unfortunately for the Blue Jackets they faltered near the end and the likes of Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak would take over and lead the Bruins back to the Eastern Conference Finals.

     

    Defense:

    On defense for the Hurricanes they have been lead quietly by Jaccob Slavin who leads the team in points with 11 this postseason, but all 11 points have been assists for Slavin and it has shown as he has been a jolt for kick startig the Hurricanes offense. The Hurricanes have also gained contributions from Dougie Hamilton, Justin Faulk and Brett Pesce who combined have 19 points (4 goals and 15 assists) this postseason. With these four players firing on all cylinders, it makes the Hurricanes defense a dangerous one to contain in regards to moving the play up the ice and into the offensive zone.

     

    The Bruins major contributions offensively have come from Torey Krug (1 goal and 8 points) and Charlie McAvoy (1 goal and 6 points) from the blueline, but their overall core which is lead by captain Zdeno Chara has been solid throughout the majority of these playoffs. However, going into Game 1 the Bruins will be without McAvoy who will be serving a ome game suspension for his hit to the head of Blue Jackets forward Josh Anderson in Game 7 last round, so the Bruins are going to need to step up in his absence for Game 1.

     

    Goaltending:

    For the Hurricanes they have relied on both of their horses from the regular season in Petr Mrazek and Curtis McElhinney. Mrazek, who is the team’s number one goaltender has a 5-3 record with a 2.22 GAA and a .913 save percentage, while McElhinney has a 3-0 record with a 1.56 GAA and a .947 save percentage since coming in when Mrazek went down with a lower body injury. The Hurricanes hope to have Mrazek between the pipes for Game 1, but McElhinney is ready to answer the call when needed.

     

    For the Bruins they have their stalwart Tuukka Rask who in these playoffs have an 8-5 record with a 2.02 GAA and a .938 save percentage as he has been the backbone for the Bruins this postseason.

     

    Goaltending will be one of the biggest keys this series, and could also be the determining factor.

     

    Special Teams:

    CAR – PP 17.8%     PK 81.6%

    BOS – PP 25.9%     PK 79.9%

     

    For special teams this could be considered a wash as both teams are on the opposite end of the spectrum in regards to powerplay and penalty kill. During the regular season the Bruins had a better powerplay, but on the penalty kill the Hurricanes were the better team. One edge I would give to the Hurricanes would be their penalty kill as seeing it in person, against the Bruins for Hartford Whalers Night, they utilize their young, fast players along with their grizzled defenders to kill penalties, and with players like Teravainen and Aho on the kill that can score shorthanded, that can give the Hurricanes a slight edge.

     

    Prediction: CAR in 6

     

    Make sure to follow TXHT’s extensive Playoffs coverage on our 2019 NHL Playoffs page.