Numbers Don’t Lie in a Bruins Game 4 Victory

The Boston Bruins took a 3-1 series lead over the Washington Capitals Friday night at the TD Garden in their best-of-seven first-round series with a dominant 4-1 victory in Game 4.

Just how dominant was the win? Let’s take a closer look at the numbers because as they say, numbers don’t lie.

Bruins Game 4 win by the numbers.

• Once again, the Bruins were dominant at the faceoff dot. Captain Patrice Bergeron won 69% of his draws, going 11-for-16. Curtis Lazar won 63% of his draws, going 5-for-8, Charlie Coyle, who scored the third goal of the game for Boston in the third period, finished at 60%, going 6-for-10. Second-line center David Krejci was 5-for-10 for 50%. Impressive stuff. Faceoffs have been big in the series and it continued in Game 4. If there is one spot that Boston has an advantage, it’s at the dot.
• Washington went 1-for-7 on the power play, with their lone goal deflecting off of Bruins defensemen Brandon Carlo and into the net. Boston is playing with danger giving the Caps seven power play opportunities. Give credit where credit is due for the Bruins. They successfully killed six-man advantages for the Capitals, with Connor Clifton doing some big-mans work in the second period. He broke his stick on one of the kills, but twice sacrificed the body to block shots from Alex Ovechkin. That’s playoff hockey. Washington had six shots on the power play in their seven chances.
• On the flip side, the Black and Gold went 3-for-5 on the power play, and that ultimately won them the game. David Pastrnak broke out of his goal-scoring slump with a third-period PPG, while he assisted on Brad Marchand’s second-period PPG when Marchy got a stick on Pasta’s shot to redirect it by Caps goalie Ilya Samsonov. The power play clicking is going to just make the Black and Gold more dangerous.
• With the offensive weapons that Washington has, Boston only allowed 14 shots on the net during 37:04 of 5-on-5 play. Of the 14 shots, only one shot was of high danger on Tuukka Rask. On the other side, the Bruins fired 29 shots 5-on-5 at Samsonov, who seemed in the first two periods to have put the gaffe behind him that cost the Caps Game 3 in double overtime. As always, the Bruins need to get pucks and bodies to the net on the Capitals rookie goalie.
• What a night for Charlie McAvoy. The Bruins blueliner played a team-high 26:18, 8:49 of which was shorthanded and he had three assists on all three power play goals. Oh, and Boston held a 12-3 advantage in shots during the 5-on-5 time when he was on the ice. His value to the defense comes out more and more with each game. Remember, he’s just 23 years old.

Boston heads down to Washington for Sunday night’s Game 5 with a chance to close out the Capitals. Repeating some of these numbers could go a long way in doing that.