Boston Bruins: Final Three At Home
If the Boston Bruins expect to make the playoffs this season (and avoid the re-build they tried to avoid going into this season), they will need to win all three of their final games. Today, the B’s will be battling for the playoff lives against a team that they can beat, the Carolina Hurricanes.
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“Three to go, and if we want all three of them then we’re in no matter what Detroit is going to do,” said B’s forward David Krejci. “That’s a good thing. We just have to take it one at a time now. It’s been a couple of years since we’ve been in [the playoffs]. (Well, actually only one Krejci.) It’s the best part of the season [and] it’s the best part of hockey. So it would be nice to be there battling for the prize at the end.
“It’s in our hands, so we just need to take it one game at a time and go get it. We just need to go out there play our game, control what we can control and not worry about other things. We just need to go out there and play our best. The biggest we need to do is to not look ahead, and just stay in the moment.”
The Bruins are choosing to focus on one game at a time as they try to avoid missing the playoffs for the second year.
“We are focusing on the game [against the Hurricanes]. That’s the biggest focus right now,” said Bruins captain Zdeno Chara. “We don’t look at it as a three-game [sequence], you know? Right now we look at it like [the Carolina] game is the biggest game for us.
“It’s obviously not an ideal situation, but nobody is giving up. I think we all know what we’re playing for, so we’ve got to be ready to go.”
It certainly isn’t an idea situation for the B’s. During the first seven years of Claude Julien‘s tenure, the B’s weren’t having to wait till the final game or look for outside help to get themselves a playoff berth. Even now, the numbers aren’t entirely behind the Bruins at the moment. The New York Islanders have a 98.8% chance of making the postseason now. Philadelphia’s chances are 78.7%.
How are the Bruins looking at the moment? Boston (62.2%) and Detroit (60.4%) are virtually neck-and-neck, and their April 7 match up will likely be a winner take all game. If the B’s can play to their strengths against Carolina, Detroit, and Ottawa (who was the last Canadian team to be mathematically eliminated), then the B’s will be seeing the postseason.