Bruins/Caps 1st Round

ColdSoxPack

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I think the Capitals offense is a little overrated because of their stars. I'm not too worried about them at even strength. The Bruins offense was feeble for most of the year but still grades out as outperforming the Capitals. By scoring chances, the Capitals are 21st in scoring chances for per 60 minutes. Defensively, the Bruins allowed the 4th fewest scoring chances against per 60 minutes at 5x5. By expected goals, the Bruins finished 12th in xGF per 60, the Capitals were 20th. The Capitals are actually better defensively than they get credit for. They finished 8th in xGA per 60 (Bruins were 3rd) and were 5th in scoring chances against per 60 (Bruins 4th). People think of the Caps as a run and gun who cares about defense type of team but they really aren't.

The Power Play is another story. The Capitals scored 8.82 goals per 60 on the power play this year, 3rd in the league. The Bruins penalty kill finished 2nd best by allowing only 4.89 goals against per 60 while shorthanded, but the Capitals did go something like 9 for 31 on the PP against us. The Bruins need to A) stay out of the box and B) be better on the kill against them. The last 2 games against Washington we blew leads due to penalty trouble and an inability to kill (in fairness one of them was multiple 5 on 3).
This is where I am. I agree Wilson should be intercoursed but we can't take penalties against these guys.
 

cshea

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Coyle is back at practice. Kase is not.

Marchand - Bergeron - Pastrnak
Hall - Krejci - Smith
Ritchie - Kuraly - Coyle
DeBrusk/Frederic - Lazar - Wagner/Kuhlman

Grzelyck - McAvoy
Reilly - Carlo
Lauzon - Miller
Tinordi - Clifton

Rask
Swayman

Decisions before Saturday are pretty much just the wings on the 4th line. I'd prefer DeBrusk/Kuhlman but we'll see what Butch has to say.
 

Salem's Lot

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Hopefully the Zboril injury is few days thing. Seeing Tinordi’s name as the next LHD to get into a game if needed is petrifying.
 

cshea

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Hopefully the Zboril injury is few days thing. Seeing Tinordi’s name as the next LHD to get into a game if needed is petrifying.
Bet they'd go to Clifton before Tinordi or even a healthy Zboril.

Anyways, full schedule is out. It's every other day. Note: Games 3 and 4 (next Wednesday and Friday in Boston) have 6:30 starts. Guess is they are trying to stagger a bit since I believe Vegas is the only pacific time zone team in the tourney.

View: https://twitter.com/mattyports/status/1392866125466292228?s=20
 

Salem's Lot

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Bet they'd go to Clifton before Tinordi or even a healthy Zboril.

Anyways, full schedule is out. It's every other day. Note: Games 3 and 4 (next Wednesday and Friday in Boston) have 6:30 starts. Guess is they are trying to stagger a bit since I believe Vegas is the only pacific time zone team in the tourney.

View: https://twitter.com/mattyports/status/1392866125466292228?s=20
I know but I still saw that and had that nervous feeling. I want Tinordi no where near a playoff game.
 

RedOctober3829

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Zososoxfan

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I'm all for the 6:30 starts!!
I would normally, but the baby Zosos do bedtime 6:30-7:30pm. For those games I'm gonna hafta decide whether to catch up and be on delay (likely getting live somewhere in the middle of the 3rd) or just jump in live to start the 2nd. Almost certainly going for option 2.

Playoff bearding now engaged--haven't shaved in about a week, so could be looking at a pretty hefty beard if there's a deep run here. Always nice in Florida summer! [/s]
 

RedOctober3829

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I would normally, but the baby Zosos do bedtime 6:30-7:30pm. For those games I'm gonna hafta decide whether to catch up and be on delay (likely getting live somewhere in the middle of the 3rd) or just jump in live to start the 2nd. Almost certainly going for option 2.

Playoff bearding now engaged--haven't shaved in about a week, so could be looking at a pretty hefty beard if there's a deep run here. Always nice in Florida summer! [/s]
Yeah baby Red tends to do bath and bedtime around 7:30-8 pm so I guess I'll time it for the first intermission. My beard situation is the same here and I plan on keeping it.

(Man, I really feel old now having this conversation. During hockey playoff time, the big decisions used to be when I started drinking and where am I going to watch the game)
 

tmracht

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Yeah baby Red tends to do bath and bedtime around 7:30-8 pm so I guess I'll time it for the first intermission. My beard situation is the same here and I plan on keeping it.

(Man, I really feel old now having this conversation. During hockey playoff time, the big decisions used to be when I started drinking and where am I going to watch the game)
Baby Tmracht tends to go to bed at 10pm lately...so hopefully not OT.
 

Zososoxfan

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Yeah baby Red tends to do bath and bedtime around 7:30-8 pm so I guess I'll time it for the first intermission. My beard situation is the same here and I plan on keeping it.

(Man, I really feel old now having this conversation. During hockey playoff time, the big decisions used to be when I started drinking and where am I going to watch the game)
You forgot the other key question (of yore)--beer or liquor [first]??
 

biff_hardbody

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Neely doing the media today. Interesting note/concern here:

Bruins are above the 80% threshold for people getting their first vaccine. They are trying to figure out when to schedule #2. Obviously side effects become a problem if they do it in the middle of a series.

View: https://twitter.com/ConorRyan_93/status/1392507836924575749?s=20
This came up in another thread and I stupidly thought the NHL extended the regular season for all teams until 5/19.

Seeing that the schedule is every other day and assuming they can't get their second dose today, might the best solution be to get a 2nd dose after one of the games? At least then they would have the day off following the 2nd dose. It would suck to lose a playoff game due to vaccine-related sluggishness.
 

cshea

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From looking at the other thread, they were given the first dose on 4/20. That would put them in line to receive the 2nd dose 5/18 which is between games 2 and 3.

I'm not sure what the data says if you push the 2nd dose off a a week or two. I don't think they'll do it mid-series. My guess is they'll just wait until after the series when they'll either be done or, hopefully, have a few days off.
 

McDrew

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From looking at the other thread, they were given the first dose on 4/20. That would put them in line to receive the 2nd dose 5/18 which is between games 2 and 3.

I'm not sure what the data says if you push the 2nd dose off a a week or two. I don't think they'll do it mid-series. My guess is they'll just wait until after the series when they'll either be done or, hopefully, have a few days off.
That's my guess. They'll get it the day after round 1 ends as long as they have 2-3 days to recover afterwards.

Ever have a day suddenly have a bunch more physical labor than you expect? The combination of the duration of the work and not stretching beforehand just makes you fucking sore from hour 12 to around hour 48 after you're done? That was my side effect experience.
 

burstnbloom

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That's my guess. They'll get it the day after round 1 ends as long as they have 2-3 days to recover afterwards.

Ever have a day suddenly have a bunch more physical labor than you expect? The combination of the duration of the work and not stretching beforehand just makes you fucking sore from hour 12 to around hour 48 after you're done? That was my side effect experience.
Kampfer was on morning bru and he said they were told they'd get the second dose after the first round, assuming they advance. So two weeks after that they can relax their restrictions.
 

The Napkin

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updates per Bruce Cassidy: Jeremy Lauzon "won't be available tomorrow" and is still "day-to-day." Kevan Miller "should be good to go tomorrow" after suffering a "nasty cut" that forced him to miss part of the first period last night.
 

cshea

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Through 2 games, I think the Bruins have been the better team. In 98 minutes at 5x5:

122-104 in attempts
57-53 in shots
51-52 in scoring chances
25-12 in high danger chances
5-5 in goals
5.69-3.18 in xG (64% xGF%).

The shots are pretty even but the Bruins are doing a better job of keeping the Caps to the outside than the Caps are doing to the Bruins. 3 of the 5 Caps goals have been long range wristers that have found a way into the net. I know it's frustrating, but those fall into the bad category than anything else. Not sure I'd change anything defensively, I'd let them keep on shooting from out there. I'll take a Brendan Dillon wrister from the blue line every day of the week over a Ovechkin/Oshie/Mantha rocket from a high danger spot.

Bruins are also getting contributions from the entire lineup. 2 goals from Jake (one on the 4th line one on the 3rd line). 2 goals from the top line, a goal from the Krejci line, and a PPG.

The key to the series is still staying out of the box. The Bruins are in control at even strength.
 

durandal1707

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There was also a significant adjustment in the lines between games. In the first game, the Bruins had two forward lines who were underwater in xGF:

DeBrusk-Lazar-Wagner: 8-9 Corsi, 4-6 chances, 0-1 HDC, 0.2-0.34 xGF (36.4%), 1-0 goals
Ritchie-Kuraly-Coyle: 5-14 Corsi, 1-7 chances, 0-2 HDC, 0.09-0.38 xGF (18.9%), 0-1 goals

In game 2, Cassidy made an adjustment:

DeBrusk-Coyle-Ritchie: 14-11 Corsi, 8-7 chances, 3-4 HDC, 0.7-0.34 xGF (67.1%), 1-0 goals
Lazar-Kuraly-Wagner: 3-8 Corsi, 0-4 chances, 0-1 HDC, 0.02-0.23 xGF (7.1%), 0-0 goals

In the first game, those two lines played about 8 minutes apiece 5v5. In the second game, Coyle's line got more time (over 10 minutes) while the 4th line only got about 6 minutes.

Getting another line to be competitive is great even if it means that the suck is concentrated on the 4th line now. But perhaps having a "traditional" 4th line (read: used sparingly and situationally) isn't the worst thing in the world. Though I would explore replacing Kuraly who seems to be a common factor in that suck. Free Frederic?
 

Cotillion

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If they could just clean up a lot of the mental lapses on clear attempts and passes, they would be doing much better. The number of times you saw the D (not just the D) pass to no one or cleared directly to a Caps player was infuriating.

There was a Marchand one where he passed the puck right on the tape to a Caps player as if he was his teammate. There was also that one where (I forget who) the defender did a soft pass to I think Krejci who was circling back and about to change and he just never expected or saw the puck and the puck slowly drifted to the blue line for a Caps player to jump on it.

So I could believe those analytics numbers, but I can also see where they are just giving away even more opportunities to carry play.

Edit - I am also way over any of the stupid blind no look back to the player passes between legs...
 

joe dokes

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There was also a significant adjustment in the lines between games. In the first game, the Bruins had two forward lines who were underwater in xGF:

DeBrusk-Lazar-Wagner: 8-9 Corsi, 4-6 chances, 0-1 HDC, 0.2-0.34 xGF (36.4%), 1-0 goals
Ritchie-Kuraly-Coyle: 5-14 Corsi, 1-7 chances, 0-2 HDC, 0.09-0.38 xGF (18.9%), 0-1 goals

In game 2, Cassidy made an adjustment:

DeBrusk-Coyle-Ritchie: 14-11 Corsi, 8-7 chances, 3-4 HDC, 0.7-0.34 xGF (67.1%), 1-0 goals
Lazar-Kuraly-Wagner: 3-8 Corsi, 0-4 chances, 0-1 HDC, 0.02-0.23 xGF (7.1%), 0-0 goals

In the first game, those two lines played about 8 minutes apiece 5v5. In the second game, Coyle's line got more time (over 10 minutes) while the 4th line only got about 6 minutes.

Getting another line to be competitive is great even if it means that the suck is concentrated on the 4th line now. But perhaps having a "traditional" 4th line (read: used sparingly and situationally) isn't the worst thing in the world. Though I would explore replacing Kuraly who seems to be a common factor in that suck. Free Frederic?
Coyle is so much more dynamic at C. I really hope he stays there. He doesn't suck on the wing, but he's much more of the force in the middle. I suspect the only thing keeping Kuraly in the lineup is the PK.
 

cshea

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Frederic will throw his body around because he won't have the puck and will be chasing the Capitals. The Bruins aren't going to win the physical game and chasing after it means they're getting away from what they do best. They're tilting the ice a little here, changing strategies would have a negative impact. If they had the option, I'd put Kase in for Wagner and lean into more skill in the lineup.

Kuraly was also 2nd in PK TOI among forwards in the regular season behind only Coyle. He has value in that capacity.
 

Over Guapo Grande

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Hopefully there won't be any snipers aiming for the Caps in the Garden this week. They almost put Les Sieges-des-toilettes to shame.

The first two lines seem to be doing their things. Nice to see points out of the first line, of course. If stars weren't given on scoresheet production, I believe without any Hall of a doubt that 71 would have earned one in game 2.
Love Seeing Jake contribute. Unlucky in his chance in late G2.... if the game had turned differently, would he have been a "goat" (not by us, but by mediatypes) for not scoring on that great look?

They say a series never turns until a road team wins a game. So here we are. Ad In.
 

burstnbloom

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I don't think Cassidy would make any major changes to the lineup. I wouldn't mind seeing Kuhlman in for Wagner on line 4. He's a much better forechecker than Wags at this point.
 

cshea

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I haven’t minded him as much this season, and those reactions (Brick too) are always great.

One weird thing from Jack last night- In both OT’s he said they switch ends midway through. They’ve literally never done that and I have no idea why he thought they did.
 

cshea

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Yeah, the only time it is considered is the 3rd period of outdoor games if the weather poses and advantage in one direction.

He mentioned it in each overtime which was really bizarre. They didn't do it in the first OT but he still led off the 2nd OT saying they'd switch directions midway through. It is a nitpick but really odd. The mid-period commercial break and quick scrape in OT is somewhat new, maybe that confused him, but even then they've been doing that for 3-4 years now.