By: Adamo Marinelli
May 23rd, 2019
Throughout the 2019 regular season and the Stanley Cup playoffs, the Carolina Hurricanes’ young and fast core, veteran leadership, physicality, their playmaking abilities which lead to several scoring chances and their tough defence which causes turnovers has made them a very talented team and granted them a lot of success, especially in the playoffs beating two very well rounded teams: the Washington Capitals and the New York Islanders. However, as we witnessed in this series, the Boston Bruins were clearly the better team. The Boston Bruins are arguably the most versatile team in the entire playoffs this year, at the very least they’re the best all-around team left in the playoffs, even topping the San Jose Sharks who are talented on the offence and the defence, with young and veteran players. The Bruins have an excellent offence, topped off by their production line, their first line, consisting of Bergeron, Marchand and Pasternak. The rest of the Bruins offence also has done an amazing job putting pucks in the net while the production line is off. Their defence is also incredible. They don’t sit back. They are physical and always win the majority of the puck battles and they control the clock and the momentum of the game. They have many great defensive players like Torey Krug, Charlie McAvoy, Matt Grzelcyk, Zdeno Chara, and rookie Brandon Carlo. Furthermore, just as these defensemen help out with the scoring, the forwards help out with the defence. That’s what makes Boston such a powerhouse on offence and defence. Finally, Tuukka Rask has been playing on another level. He has been stellar all playoffs. In 17 games played, he has 12 wins, a save percentage of .942% and a goals' against average of 1.88, the best of all goalies in the playoffs. Robin Lehner, the Islanders goalie has the next best GAA with 2.19. He also only allowed 32 goals on 549 shots and posted two shutouts. Both of his shutouts came in the series-clinching game. That is clutch. Rask is definitely a candidate with Joe Thornton for the Conn Smythe Trophy, awarded to the MVP of the playoffs. The Hurricanes played well throughout the playoffs and in this series, but Boston was just too much to handle. Boston outscored Carolina 17-5 in the four-game sweep. The Bruins’ offence was just too much to handle and their defence wouldn’t allow the Hurricanes to get going, which they were never able to. So, Boston will appear in its first Stanley Cup Finals since 2013, when they lost to Chicago. However, the trend in this playoffs is sweep and get swept. The Islanders swept Pittsburgh, got swept by Carolina. Carolina swept New York and got swept by Boston. Boston swept Carolina so it is their turn to get swept by either the Blues, who beat the Sharks in six games.
If there was one moment that you could pick as a turning point in the Western Conference Finals, it would be the controversial hand pass which wasn’t called that led to Erik Karlsson’s overtime winner in game three to give the Sharks a 2-1 series lead. That missed call infuriated everyone on the Blues and they brought that energy every game for the rest of the series. In the last three games, the Blues completely outmatched the Sharks on both sides of the puck and outscored the Sharks 12-2. Their speed, ability to create chances and their ability to win faceoffs and control the puck led to a productive offence and their physical defence caused a lot of turnovers and controlled the momentum of the game, keeping the puck out of their end. To put it simply, after the Blues started slowly in the first three games of the series -- especially the first game, where they were outsped, outmatched physically, their defence was walked all over and couldn’t get their offence going -- they only trailed 2-1 after three games, but they should have led 2-1 because of the subpar officiating and the missed hand pass that led to the controversial overtime winner in game 3. After that, the Blues dominated the last three games, like aforementioned. Rookie goaltender Jordan Binnington who has 12 wins, 1 being a shutout, a 2.37 goals against average and a .914 save percentage this playoffs, veteran Jay Bouwmeester -- who has played 1,252 NHL games to get to the Stanley Cup Finals, -- the sniper Jaden Schwartz who’s having the best postseason of his career with 12 goals and 4 assists and Vladimir Tarasenko all led the way to eliminate the Sharks, who couldn’t overcome their injuries (Karlsson, Hertl and Pavelski each missed one game with an undisclosed ailment) in six games. Now they will advance to play the red-hot and well rounded Boston Bruins in their first Stanley Cup Final appearance since 1970 when they lost to who else but the Bruins in four games after Bobby Orr scored his famous goal where he flew through the air after someone tripped him as he took a shot. The Bruins are back for the first time since 2013 after losing to the Chicago Blackhawks. The Bruins are favoured to win and are the better team (at least on offence and defence, both goalies are pretty even in my opinion, Rask only has a slight advantage in stats), but St. Louis has had a remarkable season. Being in the Cup Finals after being dead last in the league on January 3rd is an amazing story. Plus, Rask is a great goalie and is a candidate for the Conn Smythe trophy, but Binnington has also played very well this year and is a candidate for the Conn Smythe too. I have the St. Louis Blues winning their first Stanley Cup in franchise history in seven games against the Bruins. It will be an overtime thriller by Jay Bouwmeester in game seven that wins the cup. Game one of the Stanley Cup Finals is Monday, May 27th, 2019. I can't wait!
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