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The 2019 Stanley Cup final began with St. Louis Blues front-runners Brayden Schenn and Vladimir Tarasenko scoring the first two goals of the series against Zdeno Chara's Bruint quintet, Charlie McAvoy, Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and David Pastrnak.
The series ended unofficially in the seventh game when Schenn took a Tarasenko match at 11:25 in the third period to give the Blues a 3-0 lead. St. Louis won its first Stanley Cup title with a 4-1 win at TD Garden on Wednesday.
The brutal first-line performance of the Bruins defined this series as the Bruins were about to win, but they would probably have won easily if one of the top five strikers had not performed well in the last 17 days.
From the first to the seventh game, the top five Bruins – and they are among the top five because general manager Don Sweeney never solved the mystery of the missing line for David Krejci's line – had seven points. Marchand scored a goal on an empty net, Krejci scored a assist in Game 7 and a late goal from Jake DeBrusk was allied. Patrice Bergeron did not have a point of even strength in the series (but he could be hurt, so everyone tells me he is above criticism).
Play against Schenn and O & # 39; Reilly
Bergeron 52 minutes, 0 goals, 6 against
Krejci 52 min, 0 goals, 1 against
Coyle 54 minutes, 2 goals, 3 against
Kuraly 55 min, 3 goals, 4 against
– Bruins Statistics (@bruins_stats) June 13, 2019
The seventh game would have been a perfect opportunity for the Bruins' top forwards to redeem themselves. They had done it in previous rounds, even having come alive earlier in the Eastern Conference finals against Carolina to make sure the series ended in style. And with the way the game 7 started, it seemed like they were going to break through.
Boston outshot St. Louis 12-4, including three throws in the game's only power play, but was unable to get away from the puck in front of Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington. When Marchand opened half of the net, he threw the puck on Binnington's logo, his only shot of the day. Pastrnak did not have a shot at the time as he saw double or the blade of his stick was blocked so many times that he had been stoked by a single goal.
And a statistic that would announce the work that the Blues were ready to put in the same spirit as the Bruins, St. Louis blocked nine shots in the first period before reaching 21 in the game.
"Yes, we started well, we had opportunities and we did not capitalize. You know that they had the first one, some rebounds and that's all, "Marchand said.
It was not that. In previous rounds, when Merchant's line and / or Krejci's line struggled to tackle the offense, it was stop-and-go trios that prevented the leading teams from scoring and Columbus to secondary offensive and Tuukka Rask goalkeeper shoot the Bruins. Bergeron's line did not light up the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round, unlike last spring, but it allowed John Tavares' line to not be as productive.
Against the Blues, Bergeron's line conceded the first two goals of the first match and forced coach Bruce Cassidy to change the game. The coach did not play the rest of the series as much, but he may have had to do more to avoid the match between the two teams, given how Schenn's line exploited it to get the Bruins out. 7. To make matters worse, Marchand inexplicably attempted to change his line towards the end of the first period, leaving Alex Pietrangelo alone to score the second goal for St. Louis.
"Yes, you will not control the game from start to finish in this league, especially in the Cup final," said Marchand. "We had a ton of opportunities. We had a lot of good chances, but we knew that they were going backwards. It's a good team, of course, but you know we knew they were going to be resilient and they were going to take advantage of their chances. But they capitalized on theirs and we did not do it. "
You do not have to control the whole game, but what about a little? Or how about not being pushed physically like the Bruins during most of the series. Noel Acciari is the epitome of the hardness of the Bruins, but when he blew himself up by trying a lost puck of Sammy Blais, you know the Bruins are not so big and so mean. Acciari and his fourth-line comrades did their best to save the Bruins. Acciari, Sean Kuraly and Joakim Nordstrom combined 11 points while bringing as much physics as possible.
Unfortunately, at this time of the year, everyone must contribute in an offensive way and everyone must contribute physically. The Bruins' top five strikers were helpless against the puck and seemed unable to make physical contact until the Blues could hit them at every turn.
"Just today, it was not our night. Too bad it's the most important day of our lives, "said Krejci.
It was not just a day, it was more than two weeks of nights that were not theirs. The top five of the Bruins have time to think before the end of the season and Sweeney has a lot to consider when building his top six for next season.
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