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Talking Points: Boston Bruins Big Guns Strike In Game 4 Victory

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BOSTON – Here are the Talking Points from the Boston Bruins 5-2 win over the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 4 on Sunday afternoon at TD Garden to even the series at 2-2 headed back to Carolina.

GOLD STAR: Brad Marchand dominated in a big-time victory for the Boston Bruins with two goals and five points along with a plus-3 rating in 22:45 of ice time and helped step up and offset the void of the B’s missing their top two defensemen with health woes. Brad Marchand was also super engaged in top of the offense as he got inside the head of Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Tony D-Angelo to the point that D’Angelo fired his stick at Marchand’s empty net attempt that iced the game in the closing moments of the third period.

All of Boston’s big boys showed up on Sunday afternoon at the B’s time of need with Marchand’s five points, Patrice Bergeron adding a goal and three points and David Pastrnak chipping in a goal as well in the impressive win.

BLACK EYE: Tony D’Angelo. The guy managed to pretty much stay out of trouble all season after nearly getting himself booted out of the NHL for being a loudmouth hothead that couldn’t seem to control himself. Well, that all changed in Game 4 as he got into a war of words with Brad Marchand that ultimately saw him lose his composure, take a dumb penalty against Connor Clifton in the third period and then ultimately try and throw his stick to break up an empty net goal for Brad Marchand. Other than that, he had a super-duper Sunday afternoon, though.

TURNING POINT: It was cashing in on the power play to start the third period where Brad Marchand scored just as the 5-on-3 expired to give the Boston Bruins a 3-2 lead. It came about just 44 seconds into the third period to give the Boston Bruins all the momentum, and they just continued to ride that for the rest of the third period as the Hurricanes totally lost their composure. One would expect it to be a different story when the series shifts back to Carolina, but the Hurricanes let a golden chance to put a stranglehold on the series get away with some self-inflicted wounds suffered in Game 4.

HONORABLE MENTION: Jake DeBrusk didn’t have the most points or end up as one of the dominant figures on the scoresheet, but he came to play in an important for the Black and Gold. He scored a massive game-tying goal toward the end of the second period when he beat three Hurricanes players to a loose puck at the net and stuffed it past Antti Raanta to even things up going into the second intermission. In a sequence that was just as as important, the goal then stood up to a challenge for goalie interference by Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour.

It was exactly the kind of “Greasy Jake” that Cam Neely lamented wasn’t around nearly enough anymore in a Boston Bruins uniform before his trade request became public this season. But he showed he was back in the playoffs with the goal, two points, five shots on net and one blocked shot in 16:49 of ice time.

BY THE NUMBERS: 9 – the number of power plays that the Hurricanes handed to the Boston Bruins on a day when they made a ton of discipline errors and mental mistakes allowing the B’s back into the series.

QUOTE TO NOTE: “How was your Mother’s Day?” –Brad Marchand on what he said to Tony D’Angelo to get him all riled up during a Game 4 where the Carolina Hurricanes completely imploded.

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