(The team is only labeling it an upper-body injury at this point. As usual with NHL injuries, it may be some time before we know the extent of his issues. It might not be a break after all, however.)
“It hurts,” Wheeler said. “He’s a guy that is the definition of on-fire right now. He’s played awesome for us.”
Indeed, that’s a tough loss with how legitimate Winnipeg has been looking lately.
On the bright side, Evander Kane has been on a nice run of his own, and he looks to slide into Perreault’s spot alongside Mark Scheifele and Michael Frolik.
Still, there’s only so much you can sugarcoat losing a player who scored nine points in five games before being injured on Friday, especially if Kane struggles to find chemistry alongside linemates who may be better on paper.
That’s a bummer, but the league’s contenders learn to roll with injury punches. If the Jets want to gain that distinction, they’ll have to do it too … starting with tonight’s game against the struggling Arizona Coyotes.
Two weeks before Christmas 1969, Wayne Carleton was informed he was traded to the Boston Bruins. The 23-year-old winger, nicknamed “Swoop,” had spent the past four years with the Toronto Maple Leafs, mostly shuttling back-and-forth between the minors. In Boston, he got an opportunity, playing 42 games the rest of that season, the second-most of his career.
Carleton ended up on the left wing of Harry Sinden’s “checking line” with Derek Sanderson and Ed Westfall. The trio were so good together that the Bruins head coach put them on the ice to start overtime in Game 4 of the 1970 Stanley Cup Final against the St. Lous Blues.
Sinden’s reasoning? He believed that most overtime’s ended early and with Blues head coach Scotty Bowman throwing out Red Berenson, Larry Keenan and Tim Ecclestone — a line that had combined for 17 goals and 32 points in 16 playoff games — it was the Bruins’ threesome’s job to keep them off the board.
“We were quite efficient,” Carleton told NBC Sports. “We had two good lines and then our line, the checking line, and we dominated that series. There was no question. That’s why we started the overtime, because we had dominated St. Louis in every shift of all four games. That’s why Harry [Sinden] picked us to go out in the overtime. Proved him right.”
Sinden’s thinking was that his checking line could withstand whatever the Blues would start with, then he could get his big guys — Phil Esposito, Wayne Cashman, Ken Hodge — out there to ice the series and win the Cup.
Overtime didn’t last very long. 40 seconds, in fact. The Blues could not muster an attack as the Bruins kept pressing. Orr would dump the puck in deep from center ice and it was Carleton who out-skated Ecclestone and centered a pass out in front of Glenn Hall’s net, but Sanderson couldn’t get good wood on it. The puck would remain in the St. Louis zone as Boston attempted three more shots to no avail.
That third try, off the stick of Sanderson, rung around the right boards to a pinching Orr, who kept it in and dished it off to Sanderson, who was parked behind the net. As soon he fed Sanderson, Carleton circled around and headed toward the slot as a second passing option.
History has shown us repeatedly who Sanderson chose to receive his pass. But Carleton likes to joke that the legend of “The Goal” wouldn’t have been the same if he were the hero.
“I was right behind [Blues defenseman Noel Picard],” Carleton recalled. “People say ‘If the rebound had come out, you’d have probably scored it because everybody was turned the other way.’ I said, ‘If I’d have scored [the goal] wouldn’t have been famous.'”
After Orr scored and flew threw the air — thanks to some help from Picard — Carleton was the first one to grab him as the celebrations inside Boston Garden began.
“He landed and I was right there,” said Carleton “It was fun. Great memories. It was certainly a signature event and the right guy scored it.”
AP Images
Derek Sanderson’s arms were raised in celebration, but he still need to take a quick peek in the direction of the referee. The Bruins forward was ready to celebrate his first Cup victory but just wanted to be sure there was no penalty about to be called to negate the goal.
Referee Bruce Hood’s arm was raised, but he was pointing toward the Blues’ net, signaling a good goal.
In the build up to the Orr goal, it was Sanderson who had two chances to be the Game 4 hero, but his two shots in overtime failed to beat Hall.
“It pissed me off,” Sanderson joked. “I said [to Bobby] ‘Why didn’t you pass the puck to me?’ He said, ‘You got a couple shots. Don’t blame me, you hit the post, it came to me, you went into the corner and I passed it to you.'”
Sanderson’s pass capped off a memorable season for Orr, who won the Hart Trophy, Art Ross Trophy (120 points), Norris Trophy, and Conn Smythe Trophy (nine goals, 20 points) that season. The Bruins defenseman was playing on a different level than the rest of the NHL. His teammates knew he couldn’t be stopped, which is why when one of Sanderson’s missed overtime shots went around the boards to Orr’s side, he knew Orr would be there to get the puck while he went and set up behind the Blues net.
“I was an out for somebody [in that position] and then Bobby went by Ecclestone,” Sanderson recalled. “He jumps past Ecclestone. Ecclestone’s waiting for the puck to come around the boards. Bobby doesn’t wait that long. That was the genius of it. He jumped past him. But if he misses it, or I missed the pass, there’s nobody but St. Louis Blues going the other way. But Bobby didn’t miss.”
Ecclestone’s decision was the first of two bad decisions by Blues players in that sequence. The second came from defenseman Jean-Guy Talbot, who left Orr to defend Sanderson as the Bruins blue liner was left all alone as he moved to the front of the net. With Picard stuck in his spot between the faceoff circles, that gave Orr plenty of room to complete the give-and-go play with Sanderson, something the pair did a lot while on the ice together.
“[Talbot] should have never have come to me behind the net. He reached his stick out and that made him absolutely dead in the water,” Sanderson says. “I know it was a mistake because I’ve made it. … When he came to me, his odds were he couldn’t stop Bobby, he was out of position and so he went and tried to stop me, which was fool-hardy. He should have taken me from the front of the net when I missed the shot. That’s where he missed his opportunity.
“That’s the difference between [other players] and Orr. Orr didn’t stand still. He was always anticipating.”
When you look at Ray Lussier’s famous photo Orr, obviously, stands out, and your eyes might focus in on Picard’s assist on Orr’s leap or even shift over to Hall, who was crumbling back into his net. But if you peer to the right side of the image, squint your eyes a tad, you’ll notice Ed Westfall covering the right point.
Westfall was a winger, but he actually started his NHL career as a defenseman, and found himself in that position later in his career while with the New York Islanders. Two-way play was one his strengths, so it was an instinctive decision when Westfall raced to cover for Orr after he pinched in as the puck rung around the boards to right side.
“We did that regularly,” recalled Westfall. “It was a normal reaction when Orr went offensive, which was a great deal, then I just automatically fell back to cover.”
With Orr’s defense partner, Don Awrey, covering the left point and Westfall on the right, the Bruins would have been well-prepared if Sanderson’s pass to Orr was intercepted and the Blues transitioned the other way.
But Westfall’s defensive needs weren’t needed in the moment and he had a clear view of the famous goal from his place on the ice. But even if the pass failed and sent the Blues the other way, Orr’s extraordinary skating ability would have allowed him to get back in time to help prevent a scoring chance.
“What’s the primary fundamental in hockey? It’s skating,” Westfall said. “He was one of the greatest skaters I ever saw. Not only for speed, but for power and ability to be able to think as quick as you’re moving. That’s the hard for a lot of us was if I could move that fast would my brain be able to keep up? Probably not.”
Don Awrey doesn’t have a presence in any of the two famous photographs of Orr’s Cup-winning goal. The 26-year-old stay-at-home defenseman was afraid of getting caught up ice, so he focused on his defensive responsibilities and let Orr work his magic all over the ice.
“I’m not in that picture. I’m back in my position that I should have been,” Awrey said “I was back there. Bobby was out of position, but thank goodness he was out of position.”
The self-described “most defensive defenseman there ever was” knew his role and played it well. So when Sinden started the overtime in hopes of keeping the Blues’ quiet offensively, Awrey was the perfect guy to have out there.
“You didn’t start me to score the winning goal,” he joked.
The pairing of Awrey and Orr was a perfect one. They complemented one another, and Awrey quickly got used to seeing Orr out of position all over the ice.
“I knew he had [No. 4] on his back because that’s all I saw,” said Awrey, who’s worked as an off-ice official tracking shots for last 20 years with the ECHL’s Florida Everblades. “He was up the ice all the time. All I did was see No. 4 go whizzing by me. Sometimes he’d pass me between me and the boards on my side of the ice.”
To Awrey, Orr was the best hockey player he ever played with, and Awrey was a member of Canada’s 1972 Summit Series team and the 1975-76 Cup winning Montreal Canadiens. As the rest of the NHL discovered Orr’s skating ability, hockey sense and knowledge of the game was second to none.
Forty-nine years after that series, Awrey’s memories isn’t what it used to be, but it’s impossible to forget “The Goal.”
“I would have liked to have scored the winning goal, then I would have had all those accolades that Bobby got,” Awrey joked. “But it wasn’t meant to be.”
The long road of the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs has brought us to the Stanley Cup Final as the Boston Bruins and St. Louis Blues feature in the best-of-seven series. The Bruins are looking for their seventh Cup title and first since 2011, while the Blues are hoping to claim their first ever championship.
Here’s the full Cup Final schedule:
(All times ET, subject to change).
GAME 1: Monday, May 27: St. Louis Blues at Boston Bruins | 8 p.m. ET, NBC GAME 2: Wednesday, May 29: St. Louis Blues at Boston Bruins | 8 p.m. ET, NBCSN GAME 3: Saturday, June 1: Boston Bruins at St. Louis Blues | 8 p.m. ET, NBCSN GAME 4: Monday, June 3: Boston Bruins at St. Louis Blues | 8 p.m. ET, NBC *GAME 5: Thursday, June 6: St. Louis Blues at Boston Bruins | 8 p.m. ET, NBC *GAME 6: Sunday, June 9: Boston Bruins at St. Louis Blues | 8 p.m. ET, NBC *GAME 7: Wednesday, June 12: St. Louis Blues at Boston Bruins | 8 p.m. ET, NBC *If necessary
You can also stream every single game of the 2019 Stanley Cup Final by clicking here.
Now on to the predictions. Let us know in the comments how you think the series is going to play out.
SEAN: Bruins in 6. It won’t take long for the Bruins to say goodbye to any of the rust they’ve accumulated since the 11 days following their four-game sweep of the Carolina Hurricanes. Once they get over that they’ll go back to getting strong production from their top line, quality special teams, timely scoring from their secondary contributors and continued Conn Smythe Trophy worthy play from Tuukka Rask.
JAMES: Bruins in 6. Expect a touch of rust from the B’s early on in this series, but considering the age of the non-Pastrnak-sectors of the Bruins’ core, the rest should be worth it. Rask’s just as hot as Binnington, the Bruins’ power play is a game-changer, and Boston can adapt to any style, including the Blues’ rough-and-tumble ways. Boston’s reign of sports terror continues with another Bruins championship.
ADAM: Blues in 6. Maybe it’s just because we are so used to seeing Boston teams winning championships when they have the chance to play for one, but there seems to be this sentiment that another Boston-based team is just going to cruise to victory in this series. I am not buying it, friends. The Blues have been every bit as good as them over the second half of the season and the playoffs and have everything clicking for them right now. Vladimir Tarasenko is playing like a monster, Jaden Schwartz has been white-hot all postseason, and even though Jordan Binnington has had his occasional tough games, he has rebounded well every single time and has played great in big moments. Add in the fact the Blues have been a lockdown team defensively and this is a rock solid team from top to bottom. They kicked the door down to finally get back in the Stanley Cup Final and now they are going to walk through it and take it.
JOEY: Blues in 7. The Blues made it all the way to the Stanley Cup Final while getting marginal even-strength production from Vladimir Tarasenko and just five combined goals from Brayden Schenn and Ryan O'Reilly. Tarasenko has started heating up at the perfect moment, O’Reilly picked up three assists in Game 6 of the Western Conference Final and Schenn also found the back of the net in that win. Combine that with the fact that Jordan Binnington is playing at a high level right now, and you have a team that’s built for the Stanley Cup.
SCOTT. Bruins in 7. I picked Boston from the start and that’s not going to change. What I do expect, however, is one hell of a series. The Blues have proven to the world how good they are, how much quality they’re getting between the pipes and how they can bounce back from losses. But Tuukka Rask has been better than Binnington and while St. Louis has some great players — take nothing away — if the likes of Marchand, Bergeron and Pastrnak are on their game, I don’t see how the Blues can negotiate that.
RYAN: Blues in 7. The Bruins have the star power, the depth, and the hot goaltender that you want to see in a Cup contender, but I think St. Louis’ cold start to the season has led to them being underestimated while Boston might have been put a bit too much on a pedestal recently. Ultimately, why I’m giving the Blues the edge is because I look at the competition they had to go through to get here in Winnipeg, Dallas, and San Jose, and I think they’re the team that has been more thoroughly tested in these playoffs. One recent example that’s particularly impressive is how they responded to losing Game 3 in the Western Conference Final due to a goal off a hand pass by winning the next three games. Jordan Binnington seemed particularly angry immediately after that call, but he simply shook it off to play a key role in Game 4 and allow a mere two goals over his final three games. Meanwhile, the Bruins had a hard fought series against Toronto, but after that, they were facing teams that were good, but not battle hardened or necessarily ready for the next step. It also likely doesn’t do the Bruins any favors that they last played on May 16 and Game 1 is set for May 27. That could give the Blues a little extra edge in Game 1 that they need to take a contest in Boston.
BOSTON (AP) — When the NHL altered its rules with an eye toward speed and skill, this is not the Stanley Cup Final it had in mind.
Hockey is becoming less of a big man’s game, offense is up and it’s faster than ever. Then there’s the big and tough St. Louis Blues facing off against the bigger and tougher Boston Bruins in the final that shows size still matters in the playoffs.
”They are physical, we’ll be physical,” Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said Sunday. ”I don’t think we shy away from that type of game.”
The past decade-plus has been a study in the NHL getting younger and quicker, and previous champions like Chicago in 2013 and 2015 and Pittsburgh in 2016 and 2017 exemplified that. The 2019 champion will show there are still many kinds of blueprints for winning, though skill is still needed along with size and physicality.
When the puck drops on Game 1 Monday night, the bruises will begin in what should be a throwback series with the Stanley Cup on the line.
”At this point you’re going to get both teams coming out of the gates laying their hits,” big Blues defenseman Robert Bortuzzo said. ”It’s going to be a heavy series. It’s hard to say how much physicality will be going both ways. I’m sure guys will be looking to get their licks in.”
Boston and St. Louis don’t lack high-end skill, from goaltenders Tuukka Rask and Jordan Binnington to scorers Brad Marchand and Vladimir Tarasenko. They do resemble their coaches – Cassidy, who has become a mature, straightforward communicator and Craig Berube, a no-nonsense, team-first guy who has turned the Blues into a north-south, no frills team.
These teams are in many ways mirror images of each other based on their gritty styles and how tough they are to crack.
”The two hardest, heaviest teams are in the final,” San Jose Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said after his team was eliminated by the Blues in the Western Conference final. ”Everybody talks about skill and speed, there’s room for all these small players. There is a room for that. But I don’t think it’s an accident.”
It’s certainly no accident that the Bruins and Blues like to make opponents black and blue. Bruins forward Danton Heinen said physicality is what he and his teammates have tried to deliver all year long and will continue to, but the Blues figured out last round that they need to be more selective about dishing out punishment.
”You can’t just run around out there,” St. Louis forward Oskar Sundqvist said. ”When you’re going to hit, you need to hit with a purpose.”
The purpose now is to lift hockey’s hallowed trophy. After Bruins center Patrice Bergeron played the 2013 final with broken ribs and a punctured lung, there’s not much guys won’t do this time of year at their own expense.
”This is the Stanley Cup. This is what everyone plays for,” Boston forward Jake DeBrusk said. ”It’s going to be fun, physical and pretty intense, so hopefully the body holds up for everybody here.”
GOALIE DUEL
With a league-best 1.42 goals-against average and .942 save percentage, Rask is the front-runner to win the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP. Rask is in his second final as a starter after being on the Boston team that lost to Chicago in six games in 2015.
”It’s a team sport,” Rask said. ”Everybody has to pull their load. That’s the only way you can win.”
All the Blues is win, win, win no matter what since Binnington made his first NHL start in early January. They won 30 of their final 45 games to get into the playoffs, and Binnington has a 2.36 GAA and .914 save percentage in the playoffs.
No goalie has won the Conn Smythe since Jonathan Quick with Los Angeles in 2012.
CUP EXPERIENCE DISPARITY
The Bruins and Blues play similar styles yet have very different levels of winning this time of year.
Five Boston players – Rask, captain Zdeno Chara, Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and David Krejci – are still around from the 2011 Cup-winning Bruins, and Joakim Nordstrom won in 2015 with the Blackhawks. St. Louis has two players with Cup rings, though even that should have an asterisk because Jordan Nolan (2012 and 2014 Kings) hasn’t played since January and Oskar Sundqvist (2016 Penguins) only skated 20 regular-season and playoff games with Pittsburgh that year.
”Our guys that have been there, that have won a Cup, have lost a Cup, that should give us an edge,” Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said.
Of course, a year ago the Washington Capitals had only one Stanley Cup winner in Brooks Orpik before Alex Ovechkin lifted it in Las Vegas. Armstrong is banking on his players earning their experience in the final.
”Hopefully a year from now we’ll say, geez, St. Louis has got a lot of championship experience,” Armstrong said.
MAY SWEEPS
To say this has been a weird playoffs would be the understatement of the league’s 101-year history. Top seeds Tampa Bay and Calgary were knocked out in the first round along with fellow division winners Washington and Nashville, and the Lightning were actually swept by Columbus.
But there has also been a strange pattern with sweeping teams that the Bruins hope is a coincidence and not a trend related to too much time off. The New York Islanders swept Pittsburgh in the first round, then got swept by the Carolina Hurricanes in the second round. Carolina? Yeah, swept in the Eastern Conference final by the Bruins.
Boston also beat Columbus after the Blue Jackets swept the Lightning, making teams that won their previous series four games to none a combined 0-3 so far.
”It’s something that naturally you’re going to think about a little bit,” DeBrusk said.
INJURY WATCH
Attrition to the San Jose Sharks helped St. Louis get through West final, and despite their physicality, the Blues and Bruins have been fairly fortunate when it comes to injuries this postseason. St. Louis defenseman Vince Dunn missed the past three games with an upper-body injury but returned to practice wearing a full shield over his face, and forward Robert Thomas skated Saturday after leaving early in the third period West final clincher Tuesday.
Dunn is unlikely to play in Game 1 but could be available later in the series. Thomas is expected to play despite not practicing Sunday.
The Bruins have had a week and a half off to heal up, which is good news for captain Zdeno Chara, who was injured and didn’t play in Game 4 of the East final. They got a bit of a scare when Marchand jammed his left hand after bumping into teammate Connor Clifton during an intrasquad scrimmage to stay sharp during the long layoff.
Marchand missed practice Sunday, but coach Bruce Cassidy said it was for maintenance and expects Boston’s leading scorer to be good to go for Game 1.
BOSTON — You ask the Boston Bruins how they’ve spent their 11-day break between the Eastern Conference Final and the Stanley Cup Final and the most popular response is sleep.
“Rest is a weapon,” former Ottawa Senators head coach Guy Boucher liked to say. And sure, any NHL player at this time of year would love to get some additional rest between series but nearly two weeks off isn’t ideal. It’s why head coach Bruce Cassidy organized a full scrimmage Thursday night in front of a full crowd at TD Garden. Keeping that sharpness is key and Cassidy and his staff have tried to figure out ways to maintain that ahead of Game 1 against the St. Louis Blues Monday night (8 p.m. ET; NBC; live stream).
But all that time off grew old fast for the Bruins. Whether they caught up on sleep, cleaned out the DVR, enjoyed the nice spring weather, or spent time with their families, puck drop can’t arrive soon enough.
“You just want to play this time of year,” said forward Brad Marchand. “Nobody wants to practice. Guys just want to play. … This time of year no one needs to practice, no one wants to practice. You want to play the games.”
The start of Game 1 of the Cup Final is always interesting to watch. There’s an initial feeling out process that takes place before both teams finally settle into their systems, the nerves go away and the series officially begins. For the Bruins, they might start off slow given their extended break, but it’s not something that will stick.
“You can shake off some rust and we might have a little bit of that, but fatigue is something you can’t shake,” said forward Sean Kuraly. “We’ve taken it in stride. It was the hand we were dealt. You take it like anything else in the playoffs.”
Assisting the Bruins in that department has been their veteran leadership. Marchand, Patrice Bergeron, Zdeno Chara, David Krejci, and Tuukka Rask played in the 2011 and 2013 Cup Finals, winning one and losing one. While when breaking down the Bruins and Blues you can see plenty of similarities between the teams and how they got to this point, there’s one area where Cassidy believes they have an edge.
“Experience,” he said. “I just believe that our guys that have been there, that have won a Cup, have lost a Cup, that should give us an edge. Some people disagree with that once you’re here, but I believe it will give us an edge. I think it’s helped us a lot this week in the preparation, with all the down time, and hopefully going forward that is an advantage for us.”
