Looks like we're going to have a bit of time before the NHL even announces a schedule, so we may as well start a thread for pre-series chatter.
The last two series should have taught us that the regular season matchups don't mean a heck of a lot, but either way the Canes lost the season series to Boston 2-1, with on Bs win in OT. It was competitive, for sure. Aho largely did the offensive damage for the Canes, as the speed of Carolina's first line caused real trouble for the slower Bruins D. That's going to be a continuing theme. And yeah ... 2 of those 3 games featured the Canes in Whalers strip, but I don't expect that to even come up aside from on the internet. Boston of course, made a few moves at the deadline, the most significant of which was adding Coyle up front. Effectively, that helped Cassidy to balance out his three primary lines and to load up his fourth line with big motor guys ... sound familiar?
In net we're likely looking at a matchup of Rask and Mrazek. Rask is one of the calm, cool collected tribe while Mr Azek is part of the hair on fire clan. Two VERY different styles at play here. Carolina has had decent success against Rask in the past so at least they won't have any mental blocks to get over, but go ahead and assume that the hockey media at large will play up Rask as an insurmountable obstacle for the Canes. That is what they do, after all. He certainly won his showdown with Goalie Bob in the last round. Both ersatz backups saw action in the season seasons, so there aren't any surprises either way.
Defense ... this is where the road REALLY diverge. Carolina's D is built on mobility and versatility. Boston's D is built on oomph and more oomph. They try to punish you, while Carolina tries to dispossess you of the puck. Carolina will need to succeed where Columbus failed to get those big boys moving and put pressure on their lack of speed. They sort of level things out with guys like Krug who can actually move, but the more mobile defenders are largely there to cover ground that guys like Chara and Carlo don't. You CAN stretch 'em out of shape and Carolina is going to have to take some punishment to do so. You HAVE to take some risks with stretch passes to make your speed pay off, and you HAVE to expect a stick in your neck on every dead puck. Deal with it a play on.
Offense ... you know the drill. Pasternak, Bergeron, Marchand, Coyle and Krejci drive their scoring and all of them play a two way game. Their top line is their checking line and it's equally good in both roles, which makes them a nightmare to match up against. The experience is a factor as well, as aside from Marchand's childish antics you don't put them in situations where they get uncomfortable often. By the same token, Carolina can now spread the load out a bit and force Boston to react. Staal is playing his best hockey in a decade, and that's allowing Carolina to generate offense from their checking line as well. Brindy has been mixing and matching, so it's not real clear what his opening play will be but I spect him to try and force Bergeron to cover Staal rather than Aho if he can. That's a lot easier at home than on the road, but we'll see how he plays it. Both teams get a lot of traction from very active, physical fourth lines so that ought to pretty much cancel out. The third units might hold the keys to the scales in this one.
Special teams ... ugh. Boston's PP was pretty garbage against Columbus but their kill was straight fire. Carolina's PP was straight up garbage against NYI and their kill was only adequate. That's going to be a problem. Boston will take penalties, but they'll force them as well so there's GOING to be power play time on both sides. Hopefully the Canes have used the luxury of some extra practice time to iron a few things out on special teams, because this is likely where this series will be decided.
The last two series should have taught us that the regular season matchups don't mean a heck of a lot, but either way the Canes lost the season series to Boston 2-1, with on Bs win in OT. It was competitive, for sure. Aho largely did the offensive damage for the Canes, as the speed of Carolina's first line caused real trouble for the slower Bruins D. That's going to be a continuing theme. And yeah ... 2 of those 3 games featured the Canes in Whalers strip, but I don't expect that to even come up aside from on the internet. Boston of course, made a few moves at the deadline, the most significant of which was adding Coyle up front. Effectively, that helped Cassidy to balance out his three primary lines and to load up his fourth line with big motor guys ... sound familiar?
In net we're likely looking at a matchup of Rask and Mrazek. Rask is one of the calm, cool collected tribe while Mr Azek is part of the hair on fire clan. Two VERY different styles at play here. Carolina has had decent success against Rask in the past so at least they won't have any mental blocks to get over, but go ahead and assume that the hockey media at large will play up Rask as an insurmountable obstacle for the Canes. That is what they do, after all. He certainly won his showdown with Goalie Bob in the last round. Both ersatz backups saw action in the season seasons, so there aren't any surprises either way.
Defense ... this is where the road REALLY diverge. Carolina's D is built on mobility and versatility. Boston's D is built on oomph and more oomph. They try to punish you, while Carolina tries to dispossess you of the puck. Carolina will need to succeed where Columbus failed to get those big boys moving and put pressure on their lack of speed. They sort of level things out with guys like Krug who can actually move, but the more mobile defenders are largely there to cover ground that guys like Chara and Carlo don't. You CAN stretch 'em out of shape and Carolina is going to have to take some punishment to do so. You HAVE to take some risks with stretch passes to make your speed pay off, and you HAVE to expect a stick in your neck on every dead puck. Deal with it a play on.
Offense ... you know the drill. Pasternak, Bergeron, Marchand, Coyle and Krejci drive their scoring and all of them play a two way game. Their top line is their checking line and it's equally good in both roles, which makes them a nightmare to match up against. The experience is a factor as well, as aside from Marchand's childish antics you don't put them in situations where they get uncomfortable often. By the same token, Carolina can now spread the load out a bit and force Boston to react. Staal is playing his best hockey in a decade, and that's allowing Carolina to generate offense from their checking line as well. Brindy has been mixing and matching, so it's not real clear what his opening play will be but I spect him to try and force Bergeron to cover Staal rather than Aho if he can. That's a lot easier at home than on the road, but we'll see how he plays it. Both teams get a lot of traction from very active, physical fourth lines so that ought to pretty much cancel out. The third units might hold the keys to the scales in this one.
Special teams ... ugh. Boston's PP was pretty garbage against Columbus but their kill was straight fire. Carolina's PP was straight up garbage against NYI and their kill was only adequate. That's going to be a problem. Boston will take penalties, but they'll force them as well so there's GOING to be power play time on both sides. Hopefully the Canes have used the luxury of some extra practice time to iron a few things out on special teams, because this is likely where this series will be decided.
