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Talking Points: Boston Bruins Again Collapse in Carolina In Game 5

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RALEIGH, NC – Here are the Talking Points from Tuesday night’s 5-1 Boston Bruins loss to the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 5 at PNC Arena.

GOLD STAR: Tony DeAngelo gets credit where it’s due for the way he played on the ice. Certainly, he doesn’t get credit for the giant jackwagon that he clearly is off the ice, but on it he finished with the game-winning goal and a three point night. His bomb from the high point landed in the back of the net to give the Hurricanes a 2-0 lead in the first period and eventually ended as the game-winning goal when the Bruins managed to light the lamp just once. DeAngelo finished with a goal, three points and a plus-2 in 21 minutes of ice time, had five shot attempts, one hit and finished with three takeaways and three blocked shots in an extremely active game for Carolina.

BLACK EYE: Tough night for Matt Grzelcyk, who finished with a team-low 16:29 of ice time among defensemen for Boston while taking a couple penalties and finishing a minus-1 for the game. Both Grzelcyk and Brandon Carlo struggled to get the puck out of the zone leading to Carolina’s first goal and Grzelcyk took a pair of stick infraction penalties when he clearly wasn’t moving his feet enough to be effective. Carlo finished a minus-2 and wasn’t much better even if he had some tough luck when his clearing attempt bounced off Jake DeBrusk’s skate and ended up in the back of the Boston net. Overall, the entire Boston defense struggled outside of Charlie McAvoy playing fairly well while just getting out of COVID protocol.

TURNING POINT: The turning point came in the opening minutes of the game when the Perfection Line was buzzing, and it looked like they were going to be able to break through to silence the Carolina crowd. Instead, Antti Raanta made some of the eight saves he made in the first period while shutting down Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron, and then he managed to go post-to-post to rob David Pastrnak of a possible one-timer goal on the PP as well. Once Carolina had weathered the storm from the Boston Bruins, they were able to get a bouncing puck past Jeremy Swayman and rode that momentum all the way to a Game 5 victory to take a big hold on the series.

HONORABLE MENTION: Antti Raanta struggled a bit in the Game 4 loss at TD Garden, but the Hurricanes goaltender was on point in Game 5 while nearly earning himself a shutout. Instead, Raanta stopped 33 shots in the win and was outstanding in the opening few minutes of the game when he shut down Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron in one sequence, and then gloved a Marchand backhander while he was all alone in front with time to gather and shoot on the Carolina net. Raanta was brilliant throughout and should give the Hurricanes the confidence that they have a goalie that can step up in Game 6 and potentially Game 7 few games to close out the Bruins.

BY THE NUMBERS: 0 – the number of points for Boston Bruins winger Craig Smith in the five playoff games played against the Hurricanes while also sporting a minus-5 rating thus far.

QUOTE TO NOTE: “The Boston media might be a little angry tonight, but that’s okay” –Tony DeAngelo after notching a three-point game including the game-winning goal in the Game 5 win while clearly making friends and influencing people in Boston.

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