Despite a successful season, the Boston Bruins were pitiful against the Carolina Hurricanes in 2021-22. A twist of fate is a confrontation between his two teams that awaits fans in the first round of the playoffs.
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At first glance, it will be difficult for the “Oursons”, who have been defeated 3-0, 7-1 and 6-0 by the “Canes” in the past few months. For the Bruins, the players see this series as a challenge and an opportunity to redeem themselves, while the regular season will be behind them.
“Carolina has had a lot of success this season. It’s a great opportunity and we’re very excited to get going in Game 1,” forward Charlie Coyle said Friday after the season-ending loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The last confrontation between the two clubs dates back to February. A few things have changed since then, including the outfit of Jake DeBrusk, who had a good second half of the campaign on the first line. The winger went down in a weird way in the game against the Leafs, but head coach Bruce Cassidy said he’ll be 100% on Monday.
“Obviously they’ve outplayed us this year,” the coach said of the performance against the Hurricanes. It’s been a while, and I think our team is in better shape than when we faced them earlier this year. We don’t worry too much about it.”
The upper echelon
Representatives from North Carolina can afford to be confident. They likely saw no downtime this season and finished third overall in the National League with 116 points.
“At this time of year, going into the playoffs, we’re taking steps in the right direction, and we’ll have to make another one in the playoffs. It’s natural that the guys have to have a little more confidence and a little more juice to take us to the highest level. Obviously, we are very excited,” commented forward Steven Lorentz on Thursday evening.
Sebastian Aho, Andrei Svechnikov, Teuvo Teravainen once again led the scoring column, but aside from their diverse and deep attack, the Hurricanes were carried by their goalkeepers.
Frederik Andersen and Antti Raanta won the William-M. Jennings in allowing the lowest total goals this season. The Dane could however miss the first duel of the series due to an injury. It was he who had beaten the Bruins three times, including twice by shutout.
The first duel of this series will be broadcast on TVA Sports on Monday at 7 p.m.