Stanley Cup Preview
The Stanley Cup finals begin tonight in Boston, featuring the St. Louis Blues versus the Boston Bruins. The rematch of these two team always brings to mind the iconic photo of Bobby Orr flying through the air, parallel to the ice, yet celebrating his Cup-winning goal. Only Orr could do that.
This series will be far different from that 1970 clash. The Bruins have had a complete team effort to get to the finals, relying on stellar goaltending from Tuukka Rask, who boasts a remarkable .942 save percentage and would be the clear winner of the Conn Smythe award, the MVP of the playoffs, if they ended today. The Blues, on the other hand, seemed to physically wear their opponents down in each of the prior series, taking care of the Winnipeg Jets in 6, the Dallas Stars in 7, and the San Jose Sharks in 6. The Blues combine their physicality with a solid defense and penalty kill that is backed up by the remarkably reliable rookie goaltender Jordan Binnington.
The series will be a study in contrast, with the Blues’ relying on their physical play and the Bruins relying on speed. As expected from Cup finalists, both teams have offensive firepower. The Bruins boast one of the best lines in hockey with the smooth and steady Patrice Bergeron, the always annoying Brad Marchand, and the sniper David Pastrnak, who were reunited during the Bruins second round dismantling of the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Blues have the always dangerous Vladimir Tarasenko and the top scorer in the playoffs, Jaden Schwartz, along with scoring depth provided by Ryan O’Reilly and David Perron in particular.
Defensively, the teams seem equally well matched. Both are anchored by studs, the ageless Zdeno Chara for the Bruins and Alex Pietrangelo for the Blues, who is also a real offensive threat. Their supporting casts are also strong. Charlie McAvoy has really been the Bruins top defenseman and post-season rookie Brandon Carlo has also been surprisingly strong. For the Blues, it’s likely that Colton Parayko and Jay Bouwmeester will be on the ice as much as possible against the Bruins top line in one of the key matchups of the series.
Beyond that matchup between Boston’s first line and the Blues top defensive pairing, the difference in the series could also be provided by each team’s fourth line. For the Bruins, Charlie Coyle, Marcus Johansson, and Sean Kuraly have been dynamic and dominant shift after shift during these playoffs. Similarly, the Blues line of Alexander Steen, Ivan Barbashev, and Oskar Sundqvist has perhaps been less impactful but still a strong forechecking fourth line. A good, strong forecheck, a feature of the Blues, has been known to give the Bruins defense trouble. That could be offset by the Bruins ability to counterattack with their speed.
As in every series, goaltending will be key. Rask has surely been magnificent but he has also led a bit of a charmed life as well. In the series-clinching game against the Blue Jackets, Columbus managed to hit the post four times. Binnington has done everything St. Louis has needed him to do so far, but he will probably need to do more than just that for the Blues to win. He has certainly shown he is capable of doing so. Finally, the Bruins haven’t played a game in ten days and we’ll see if that has any effect on Rask or the team in general.
Prediction: The Bruins just look like the team of destiny this year, although it’s hard to discount the Blues who were last in the league in the beginning of January until they found Binnington and are now in the Stanley Cup finals. Bruins in 7.