No, the Stanley Cup playoffs do not begin on Saturday afternoon at the Garden. But if you’re looking for a reasonable facsimile of a post-season environment, you could do worse than the nationally televised Bruins-Panthers showdown on Causeway Street (3:30 p.m., ABC).
The B’s hold a four-point lead over the Panthers for the Atlantic Division crown and home-ice advantage for at least the first two rounds of the playoffs. A Bruins’ win would give them a formidable six-point lead with four games left in the regular season. A Panthers’ win would cut the lead to two points and, with Florida in possession of the tie-breaker (regulation wins), the race would probably go down to the wire.
Florida native Andrew Peeke, obtained at the deadline from Columbus, will get his first taste of the playoffs in a couple of weeks. But Saturday’s game will be nice appetizer
“It’s awesome,” said the defenseman. “It raises the stakes. Everyone’s juiced up, they know what’s at stake and that’s the best part of it.”
For coach Jim Montgomery, the focus remains on his own team, but there’’s no denying the importance of Saturday’s game.
“First place is on the line,” said Montgomery. “Besides that, we just want to continue what we’re doing, especially these last two games (tough wins in Nashville and Carolina in which they allowed just one 5-on-3 goal). We really care about our play heading into the playoffs. We feel our play is in a good place and what better way to test than to play against Florida (Saturday) at home.”
And you can expect the Panthers to come in hot, for reasons beyond the standings. They’ve yet to beat the B’s in three tries, despite their attempts to bully them with their perceived advantage in the physicality department. And before dispatching the also-ran Ottawa Senators on Thursday, the Panthers were on a 2-7-1 skid that included last week’s 4-3 loss to the B’s in Florida.
From the B’s perspective, there is of course the lingering stench of the Panthers ending their dream season in the first round last year. All three games this season have had a certain buzz and nastiness, from the first one back on October 30. That was a 3-2 overtime win for the B’s at the Garden, when Charlie McAvoy nailed Oliver Ekman-Larson with a high hit for which he was suspended four games. Then came the return match in Florida (a 3-1 Bruin win) in which Nick Cousins took a message-sending run at McAvoy, though he thought better of actually dropping the gloves with mcAvoy. And finally, we saw last week’s contest in Florida that featured a couple of tussles and three blown leads by the Panthers in the B’s 4-3 win.
The Panthers are not at full strength. Defenseman Aaron Ekblad and sniper Carter Verhaeghe are both expected to remain out of the lineup. But good teams like the Panthers tend to get more dangerous – at least in the short-term – when they’re facing internal challenges like that.
“These are the games that you want to be a part of,” said Danton Heinen. “We’ve had some good games lately where they’ve felt like playoff games and it’s going to be another one on (Saturday). Those are fun games to be a part of and easy to get up for.”…
Heinen is the Bruins’ nominee for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy, voted on by the Boston chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers Association. He is one of the 32 nominees representing each team from across the league with the winner to be named in June.
The award is given to player who “best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey.”
Heinen accepted the nomination in his typically understated, deflective manner.
“I guess they didn’t have many options,” he said with wry grin. “Yeah, it is what it is. You don’t want to put yourself in a position where you have to come back form something. For me, there’s other guys that go through real stuff, but it is what it is.”
But there was no guarantee he’d even be in an NHL uniform this year.
After not being re-signed in Pittsburgh, Heinen was brought back to Boston on a tryout agreement for training camp. Despite clearly earning a job, he was not signed until two weeks into the season on October 30 because of salary cap reasons.
Since then, he’s been an integral part of the Bruins’ surprising run to the top of the Atlantic Division standings, whether he was skating on the fourth line or in his current role as a top line winger with David Pastrnak and Pavel Zacha. Despite missing the first couple of weeks, Heinen has 16-18-34 totals, two goals shy of his career best.
“I think it’s deserved,” said Montgomery, who coached Heinen at the University of Denver. “He had to fight through a lot. When you go through a whole summer not knowing if you’re going to have a contract or not, if you’re going to play again in the NHL, it’s a lot of uncertainty you have to deal with mentally. The perseverance mentally he had to come in here with, have a real good camp and stay here because of his commitment to wanting to be a Boston Bruin again and then getting the opportunity and flourishing – in any role. He started on the fourth line, I think he went to the third line.. We introduced him to the penalty kill. He didn’t penalty kill when he was here before. He’s done everything we could ask of him.”…
Montgomery had no further update on Justin Brazeau, reiterating that he’s week-to-week with the upper body injury he suffered in Nashville….
Brad Marchand did not practice on Friday, taking a maintenance.
“He got his 400th goal (on Thursday), he came in and said ‘I’m done,’” joked Montgomery.