Hurricanes vs. Bruins 2nd-round preview

by Dirk Hoag on May 1, 2009 9:10 AM EDT

The Blogs

Canes Country vs. Stanley Cup of Chowder

The Storyline

Like the Red Wings out west, the Boston Bruins swept their way through the first round, and have been biding their time while the Carolina Hurricanes took 7 games (and especially the final 80 seconds) to beat the New Jersey Devils.

The Numbers

	Carolina		Boston
Record	45-30-7	11th	53-19-10	2nd
Pts %	0.591	11th	0.707	2nd
Goals For/Game	2.88	16th	3.29	2nd
Goals Against/Game	2.70	8th	2.32	1st
5-on-5 GF/GA	1.00	16th	1.42	1st
PP%	18.7	18th	23.6	4th
PK%	80.4	19th	82.4	11th
Shots/Game	32.6	6th	30.3	11th
Shots Against/Game	29.5	12th	30.8	21st
FO %	51.3	8th	51.0	13th

As with some of the other teams remaining, hot play down the stretch means that the Hurricanes are likely to be better than these numbers would portray, but there's just too large a gap to close here. Interestingly, both teams get contributions from a wide group of players; using the statistical model from my MVP article, Boston player who stood out the most, David Krejci, came in at #34 overall, while Carolina's leader, Eric Staal, showed up at #69. That means that neither team relies overly much on a handful of core players (unlike Washington, which had 4 of the top 5 spots).

Goaltending

Carolina

	GP	MIN	W	L	T	EGA	GA	GAA	SA	SV	SV%	SO
2008 - Michael Leighton	19	1029	6	7	2	1	50	2.92	507	457	.901	0
2008 - Cam Ward	68	3928	39	23	5	10	160	2.44	1901	1741	.916	6

Boston

	GP	MIN	W	L	T	EGA	GA	GAA	SA	SV	SV%	SO
2008 - Tim Thomas	54	3259	36	11	7	4	114	2.10	1694	1580	.933	5

Cam Ward has been playing well, but Tim Thomas is the likely Vezina Trophy winner this season.

Penalties

No OtF preview would be complete without a look at Penalty Plus/Minus, to see which players will head to, or send other players to, the box:

Carolina	Penalties Drawn			Boston	Penalties Drawn
Player	Draws	Fouls	Pen +/-	Player	Draws	Fouls	Pen +/-
Erik Cole	49	25	+24	Milan Lucic	34	39	-5
Eric Staal	45	24	+21	Shawn Thornton	33	31	+2
Tuomo Ruutu	40	37	+3	Zdeno Chara	30	38	-8
Tim Gleason	30	28	+2	Steve Montador	29	47	-18
Chad LaRose	26	16	+10	Marc Savard	31	23	+8
Ray Whitney	23	16	+7	Mark Recchi	24	11	+13
	Penalties Taken				Penalties Taken
Tuomo Ruutu	40	37	+3	Steve Montador	29	47	-18
Joni Pitkanen	13	30	-17	Milan Lucic	34	39	-5
Tim Gleason	30	28	+2	Zdeno Chara	30	38	-8
Erik Cole	49	25	+24	Shawn Thornton	33	31	+2
Eric Staal	45	24	+21	Marc Savard	31	23	+8
Niclas Wallin	8	21	-13	Mark Stuart	14	27	-13

Carolina's Cole and Staal do a fine job drawing penalties, and will need to continue to do so if the Hurricanes hope to keep up with the Bruins.

The Prediction

The Hurricanes made a spirited run over the final weeks of the season, and fought through a classic series against the New Jersey Devils, but are facing too much of a juggernaut here. I'm taking the Boston Bruins to move on.

Poll

Which team will win this series?

Carolina Hurricanes

15 votes

Boston Bruins

9 votes

24 votes | Poll has closed

Tweet Comment 1 comment | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

The 'Canes are very good, but Boston is better

I really enjoyed the Devils/Canes series, but I am unsure if the better team won that series. Carolina is great at exploiting opportunities, which the Devils gave them. Jersey’s style of play is fun and can be fast, but they don’t always seem to be on the same gameplan. Boston can beat a team in any number of ways; they have speed, defense, checking, goaltending…They are the most complete team in the EC. It will be hard for anybody to beat them in the playoffs.

This one goes to the Bruins, but it won’t be a rollover like the Habs.

by russellguldin on May 1, 2009 10:22 AM EDT reply actions