Technically, the Columbus Blue Jackets are underdogs again.
But it doesn’t feel that way anymore.
Not after what happened in the first round. Not after watching the NHL’s Goliaths get struck down by a team that no longer looks as meek or flawed as it did when the playoffs began.
There’s something about knocking off the Presidents’ Trophy winners — in four games, no less — and then waiting around a week for the others playoff series to catch up that gives a team a certain amount of confidence or swagger that previously wasn’t there before.
Think the Tampa Bay Lighting were a dangerous opponent? Well, what does that say about the team that swept them?
For one, it says that the Blue Jackets are giant killers. The Bruins know it, with forward Sean Kuraly calling Columbus “one of the hottest teams in the league right now.” And head coach John Tortorella knows it, too. He knows that after being the Lightning, his team has now proven that it can beat anyone. Because of that, he couldn’t care less who is second round opponent is.
Bring them on. All of them.
Boston might have finished with a better record than Columbus and won a head-to-head match-up during the regular season. But heading into the second-round series, which begins on Thursday in Boston, it should be the Bruins who are more worried than the Blue Jackets are.
“I’m not going to spend much time talking about the Bruins and all that stuff,” Tortorella said in a conference call a day after the Bruins defeated the Maple Leafs in Game 7 to advance to the second round. “We have a tremendous amount of respect for them there, I’ll tell you that, and we’re just going to concentrate on our team and try to play the best way and try to prepare the best way that we can.”
Considering that the Blue Jackets wrapped up their first-round series on April 16, they’ve had nothing but time to prepare while Boston and Toronto went the distance in a seven-game series that finished on April 23.
That’s both good and bad. While the Blue Jackets are more rested than the Bruins, they are also rusty. That rust was potentially a factor in why a Lightning team that was so good in the regular season — but was playing meaningless hockey down the stretch after locking up first place — looked so overwhelmed in the first round.
Now, the tables have turned. Boston is game-ready, while Columbus has been sitting at home waiting to see who its opponent would be.
“That’s a question that’s going to be asked, just because there’s so many days off,” Tortorella said of whether the rest will be a benefit or a hindrance. “I think that once they know there’s a team and there’s a date, that helps the players. Now they know it. But I don’t know what to expect. I think we’re prepared.“
Here’s what we know: Boston won’t be taking its opponent lightly.
The fact that the Bruins defeated the Blue Jackets 6-2 in their final meeting of the regular season earlier this month won’t matter one bit. The Bruins saw that the Blue Jackets were a different team in the playoffs.
They saw how Columbus had success against Tampa Bay. By playing a physical game, by relying on a relentless forecheck and capitalizing on a power play that had a 50% success rate.
“We know they were physical against Tampa,” Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy said following Tuesday night’s win against the Leafs. “They came after them. They got key saves. Power play was lights out. So, we got our hands full. Listen, we’re looking forward. I think it’ll be a good matchup for us. I think the teams are similarly built, so it should be a good series.”
The Bruins will be prepared. But so will the Blue Jackets, who know the Bruins won’t be pushed around as easily as the Lightning were. At the same time, Tortorella wasn’t puffing out his chest when he said it doesn’t matter who the opponent is. For the Blue Jackets to have success, they will have to stick to their game plan and hope that it’s the Bruins who are forced into making adjustments.
“We’re going to play our game,” said Tortorella. “We’re just worried about our execution. We don’t stray too far about how we’re going to play.”
When Tortorella was asked if there’s a sense the Stanley Cup is now up for grabs now that the Lightning, as well as the Maple Leafs, Penguins, Flames, Jets, Predators and Golden Knights are all out, he laughed.
“We haven’t even talked about the Stanley Cup,” he said. “I think the most important thing with our team is that we keep looking forward … the second round is going to be a tougher round. The second round is going to have more surges in it and momentum swings. The second round is the second round. Our first round is done.
“I think our players feel really good about themselves and how they played. But it is a case of satisfaction. Are we satisfied as a team that has not won a round in the playoffs and now we have?
“We’ve crossed that bridge. Now, what’s our mindset?”
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