Need to Know: Bruins vs. Hurricanes | First Round

BOSTON - Let's be honest. If you look at the numbers from the three meetings between the Bruins and Carolina Hurricanes during the 2021-22 regular season, they aren't very pretty from the Black & Gold's perspective.
Boston was shutout in two of the matchups and was outscored, 16-1, overall across the three games. But as one-sided as the stats may look on paper, the Bruins believe they don't quite tell the whole story.

Boston is a far different team now than it was in each of the previous three meetings this season, having posted a 25-10-2 record since the last meeting against Carolina on Feb. 10. The B's 52 points over that span rank fifth in the NHL behind Edmonton (55), Calgary (55), Minnesota (54), and Florida (53).
"Obviously, they had their way with us this year," said Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy. "Some of that was a while ago, and I think our team's in a much better place than when we played them earlier in the year. So, we're not going to take too much stock in that."
Bruins general manager Don Sweeney said the Black & Gold "should be a confident group" heading into the postseason given how well they have played since the calendar turned to 2022.
"We've earned the right to play along with the other 15 teams," said Sweeney. "It's not an easy process. Every team went through different periods of times with challenges, and we were no different. Early on, didn't get out of the gate with the integration of several new players and the whole league facing adversity and challenges of COVID and navigating all of that.
"But from January on, our team started playing the way we were capable of playing and carried it really on throughout the later part of the season…we're pretty confident in the way we're playing."
Take a closer look at the first-round matchup between the Bruins and Hurricanes:

All Lined Up

Here's how the Bruins are expected to line up for Game 1 on Monday night:
FORWARDS
Brad Marchand - Patrice Bergeron - Jake DeBrusk
Taylor Hall - Erik Haula - David Pastrnak
Trent Frederic - Charlie Coyle - Craig Smith
Nick Foligno - Tomas Nosek - Curtis Lazar
DEFENSEMEN
Hampus Lindholm - Charlie McAvoy
Matt Grzelcyk - Brandon Carlo
Derek Forbort - Connor Clifton
GOALIES
Linus Ullmark
Jeremy Swayman
Scratches: Anton Blidh, Josh Brown, Mike Reilly, and Chris Wagner.
Cassidy confirmed on Sunday afternoon what many had expected over the last several days when he named Ullmark as the B's starting goaltender for Monday night's Game 1 in Raleigh. Since March 15, Ullmark has posted a 9-1-0 record with a .945 save percentage and 1.50 goals against average, both of which rank first in the NHL during that time.
"He's gotten better as the year went on," Cassidy said of Ullmark. "You could say that's part of competition, part of getting comfortable being a Bruin, could be a lot of different reasons. I certainly think competition is one of them. Both goalies play almost equal amount of games and minutes. Tuukka [Rask] was in the mix there for a while so there was competition there.
"He trended very well for us. You want to be playing your best hockey as the playoffs near and I think we'd certainly say he is."
There are not expected to be any lineup changes - or surprises - for Game 1, though Chris Wagner has remained with the club following a strong showing in his first and only game with Boston this year during the regular season finale in Toronto on Friday night. Wagner, who landed 11 hits against the Maple Leafs, will not be in the lineup to start the playoffs but the veteran of 35 postseason games with the B's could be a factor at some point.
"He was patient about things, not happy about things, but a really good soldier and leader which is important for our organization," said Sweeney. "He just kept asking me if he kept playing well and his game's at the top of it, is he a part of moving forward and I've always told him, ultimately, coach decides the lineup.
"But that being said, if you're playing the best, he's going to put the players that are gonna help him win, especially as the intensity ramps up and Chris can provide what he does. He did that in the very last game of the year and earned his right to be part of this group going forward.
"He's happy about it, we're happy about it, and the players he plays with are happy about it."

Opposing View

The Hurricanes' torrid pace slowed a bit over the final month as they posted a 9-5-0 record in April with the New York Rangers briefly tying them atop the Metro Division standings. But Carolina prevailed, capturing the division crown with 116 points, six clear of the Rangers, and finishing second in the Eastern Conference behind the Florida Panthers (122 points). The Hurricanes' 116-campaign is the best in club history, as are their 54 victories, surpassing the franchise's previous highs set in 2005-06, the year of their lone Stanley Cup victory.
"[Coach Rod Brind'Amour's done a great job," said Cassidy. "I think teams at times, maybe not everywhere, take on the personality of their coach - he's known for being a hardworking, conscientious guy, 200-foot game, gave everything they had. I think that's Carolina in a nutshell.
"They play from the first whistle to the last, they're intense, they play with pace. I don't think that's changed. They had a little mini burp there at the end of the year like a lot of team are gonna have a bit of a slide at some point…their play hasn't dropped off."
The Hurricanes (54-20-8) play with plenty of pace, ranking ninth in scoring (3.38 goals per game) during the regular season and 13th on the power play (22%), but it was at the other end of the ice that Carolina did most of its damage. The 'Canes finished the season first in the NHL on the penalty kill (88%) and goals against (2.44 per game).
"I think it's their aggressiveness," said Bruins captain Patrice Bergeron. "They're on the puck. They play tight defense and they're a fast team. They're very aggressive. Offensively, they have great players. A lot of skills. But at the same time, they take care of their defense as well. They have good back pressure. It's a great team that we're facing."
Given the Hurricanes' prowess on the penalty kill, Cassidy and his coaching staff looked back at some video from the 2019 Eastern Conference Final, during which the Bruins were able to convert on 7 of 15 opportunities during their four-game sweep.
"We did go back and look at the one series…it was entries, combatting their pressure holding the blue line, if we had the appropriate support and speed to make a play, we scored some goals off the rush," said Cassidy. "And net front, their D will try to kill some plays and they're aggressive, so we threw a lot of pucks to the net. I think it was Game 2 here at home, we had made an adjustment and it worked out well for us.
"I think [Marcus Johansson] got one and there was another one from Bergy or Jake [DeBrusk]…both of them we got to the front of the net before they did. I see some similarities. It's still [Jaccob] Slavin, [Brett] Pesce is part of their kill. They've added some pieces there with Brady Skjei, some different guys, [ian] Cole now killing. The mentality is still the same. They want to deny entries and they want to get to pucks quickly and close off passing lanes. It hasn't changed, really, their approach.
"We have to be quick on pucks and supporting pucks and have a bit of a 5-on-5 mentality where you can spin out of a check or out of a hit to make a play like you would 5-on-5. When we start bringing that, I think we'll get some looks."
Offensively, Sebastian Aho led the Hurricanes with 81 points and 37 goals in 79 games, while Andrei Svechnikov (30-39-69), Teuvo Teravainen (22-43-65), Vincent Trocheck (21-30-51), and Tony DeAngelo (10-41-51) all hit the 50-point plateau. Nino Niederreiter also chipped in 24 goals. And its the back end, which is paced by DeAngelo, Cole, Slavin, Pesce, Skji, is where much of the offense starts for the Hurricanes.
"They're quick in and out of their end, so forecheck, structure, running your routes is important and getting over top," said Cassidy. "Our F3 is going to be really important; it always is because their D come so much. You can live with the odd 4-on-3 as long as your forwards are coming back if you don't have success on the forecheck.
"But the 3-on-2 and the 4-on-2's catch up to you. Our third forward has to be disciplined and recognize when to fight another day and when to stay in on the battle."

Goalie Frederik Andersen ranked second in the NHL in goals against average (2.17) behind the Rangers' Igor Shesterkin (2.07) and third in save percentage (.922) behind Shesterkin (.935) and the Islanders Ilya Sorokin (.925). His four shutouts placed him tied for sixth.
Anderson, however, has been ruled out for Game 1 with injury, meaning Antti Raanta will likely get the start between the pipes. Raanta went 15-5-4 with a 2.45 goals against average and .912 save percentage in 28 games for Carolina and teamed with Andersen to win the NHL's Jennings Trophy for least goals allowed.
Netminder Pyotr Kochetkov is also with the Hurricanes and could back up to start the series. With Andersen sidelined, the 22-year-old made his NHL debut on April 23 and picked up the win with a 17-save performance. He went on to win both of his other starts.
"Andersen was really good against us," said Cassidy. "We can't control who plays against obviously. But that's a factor. Goalie [coach Bob Essensa] will go through the goalie he thinks is playing and does a little presentation on him. We're expecting Raanta but we're not really sure. We'll have a book on each guy. We can do a best guess. You get around the rink [Monday] morning and probably get a little bit more information here and there.
"At the end of the day, we've seen Andersen a lot over the years in Toronto and in Carolina. We've seen a little bit of Raanta. The guy we haven't seen, only on video, is the young fella they brought up from Chicago…he's a factor too…you're always prepare with some information…it shouldn't change your approach a lot."
Projected Carolina lineup:
FORWARDS
Andrei Svechnikov - Sebastian Aho - Seth Jarvis
Max Domi - Vincent Trocheck - Teuvo Teravainen
Nino Niederreiter - Jordan Staal - Jesper Fast
Jordan Martinook - Jesperi Kotkaniemi - Martin Necas
DEFENSEMEN
Jaccob Slavin - Tony DeAngelo
Brady Skjei - Brett Pesce
Brendan Smith - Ian Cole
GOALIES
Antti Raanta
Pyotr Kochetkov
"They've done a lot of things well, they're a really good team," said Sweeney. "It's gonna take our very best hockey to beat them. They're balanced, they play hard, they pressure the puck. I think a little bit of the circle of life that all teams go through, you have to develop and integrate players - and they've done that.
"They've added and complemented their group not unlike the rest of us that are in the playoffs and tried to do the exact same thing. You tip your cap to your opponent. I think every team in the playoffs is staring at a real tough matchup regardless and you've got to go out and play your best."

This Season

The Bruins and Hurricanes met three times during the regular season with Carolina winning all three games.
Oct. 28 at Carolina - Hurricanes 3, Bruins 0
Carolina improved to 6-0 with the victory over the Bruins, who were on the second night of a back-to-back. DeAngelo, Niederreiter, and Svechnikov (empty-netter) had the goals for the Hurricanes, while Andersen made 33 saves.

Jan. 18 at Boston - Hurricanes 7, Bruins 1
The Bruins' five-game winning streak was snapped by the Hurricanes on Willie O'Ree Night at TD Garden. Tuukka Rask, playing just his second game back from offseason hip surgery, allowed five goals in the first period and was pulled after the opening 20 minutes.
Carolina got out to a 2-0 lead just over six minutes into the game before Bergeron scored on the power play to cut the deficit in half. But the Hurricanes responded with three more goals to end the first and added two more in the third.

Feb. 10 at Boston - Hurricanes 6, Bruins 0
The Bruins were without Brad Marchand (suspension) and Bergeron (injury) for the final matchup of the regular season. And Carolina took advantage, as Andersen made 34 saves for his second shutout of the year against Boston. Aho added two goals for the Hurricanes.
"We're not drawing on anything necessarily from the games we played them this year other than the coaches look at that and say, 'OK, we should've been better in this area, this is what got us in trouble,'" said Cassidy. "We try not to bring that to the players. That was back a while ago. We're trying to talk about what we need to do moving forward. There's obviously clips we show them.
"We did do some good things in those games, believe it or not, because they were so one-sided, the ones at home. But the game up there I thought was better, more accurate for us, which was October. We're a different team now. Not getting too much into what happened this year.
"It's more about generally how they play and what we can do to sort of combat their strengths or neutralize their strengths and try to exploit some of their weaknesses, which there aren't that many."

Postseason History

The Bruins are 5-1 in five previous series against the Hurricanes, with Boston holding a 23-12 edge over 35 games. Two of those series (1990 and 1991) came when the franchise was known as the Hartford Whalers.
2020 First Round -Boston 4, Carolina 1
2019 East Final- Boston 4, Carolina 0
2009 Second Round - Boston 3, Carolina 4
1999 First Round - Boston 4, Carolina 2
1991 Adams Semifinal - Bruins 4, Hartford 2
1990 Adams Semifinal - Bruins 4, Hartford 3
"We had a great rivalry with Hartford in my days, early on we played them in the playoffs in the Adams Division," Sweeney remembered. "You have four games in five nights, you knew what you were up against, you pay against Dineen and Verbeek and those guys. You're involved in a hockey game in the playoffs. They've gone on and won a Stanley Cup since moving. It's a good story overall in terms of what the league tried to do. There's no guarantee they're gonna have success, but Carolina has been a success."

Last Postseason Meeting
There was nothing normal about this one. On the heels of their 2019 Eastern Conference Final matchup, the Bruins and Hurricanes met once again in the first round of the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs, which came in August after a roughly five-month league shutdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Boston entered the matchup as the Presidents' Trophy winner and played that way, dispatching the Hurricanes in five games in the bubble at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto. The Bruins did so, however, mostly without Rask, who stepped away from the team to tend to a family emergency before Game 3.
The Bruins, who were actually the No. 4 seed in the East after going 0-3 in the round-robin portion of the Return to Play tournament, rode Jaroslav Halak between the pipes over the final three games and won all three contests to capture the series in five games.
Game 1 of the series was a memorable one for a bevy of reasons as the matchup was postponed after Tampa Bay and Columbus played into five overtimes, pushing the opener of B's-Hurricanes to the following morning.
The teams then played a marathon contest of their own as Game 1 went to double overtime before Bergeron ended it 1:13 into the second extra session.

Fun Facts
- The Bruins tied a record with four power-play goals in the third period of a 6-1 victory over Hartford in Game 5 of their 1991 semifinal series. The Whalers held a 1-0 lead entering the third, before Boston struck for a club record six goals in the final frame. - The Bruins have come back from a three-or-more goal deficit to win a playoff game on seven occasions, including Game 4 of their 1990 series with Hartford. The Whalers held a 5-2 lead entering the third, before the Bruins scored four unanswered tallies (Dave Poulin, 1:28; Bob Beers, 7:00; Dave Christian, 8:10; and Poulin, 18:16). - Boston won Game 6 of its 2009 second-round series with Carolina to force a Game 7 for just the second time in their history when they had trailed in a series, 3-1. - The Bruins and Hurricanes played their 2020 first-round series in a bubble atmosphere at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario, with virus prevention measures in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic. - Bergeron became the Bruins' all-time leader in postseason overtime goals with his fourth career playoff OT goal at 21:13 of extra time for a 4-3 win over Carolina on August 12, 2020.

Series Schedule

Game 1: Monday, May 2 at PNC Arena | 7 p.m. ET on NESN, ESPN, 98.5 The Sports Hub
Game 2: Wednesday, May 4 at PNC Arena | 7 p.m. ET on NESN, ESPN, 98.5 The Sports Hub
Game 3: Friday, May 6 at TD Garden | 7 p.m. ET on NESN, TNT, 98.5 The Sports Hub
Game 4: Sunday, May 8 at TD Garden | 12:30 p.m. ET on NESN, ESPN, 98.5 The Sports Hub
\Game 5: Tuesday, May 10 at PNC Arena | TBD on NESN, 98.5 The Sports Hub
\Game 6: Thursday, May 12 at TD Garden | TBD on NESN, 98.5 The Sports Hub
\Game 7: Saturday, May 14 at PNC Arena | TBD on NESN, 98.5 The Sports Hub
\if necessary
Video: Russo goes 1-on-1 with Patrice Bergeron