The playoff assault on the Bruins' centers in the face-off circle is continuing into the second round against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Patrice Bergeron, the NHL’s best face-off man, was kicked out of the circle a couple dozen times in the first-round against the Toronto Maple Leafs in a development that forced Brad Marchand and others into taking some important draws for the Black and Gold.
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It really slowed down the games at times as refs were kicking players out of the face-off circle and it was befuddling Bergeron as it seemed to be different points of emphasis with each of the different linesmen filtering in and out of the series.
More important, it took away an advantage that the Bruins hold on the draw over everybody else in the NHL because of Bergeron’s hard-earned skill in that area. It's also been a bit of an annoyance to the Black and Gold as well.
Bruce Cassidy was asked about it in the first round and likened it to the preseason where NHL officials were getting centers used to the way the face-off rules would be more strictly enforced. Now in the second round, the B’s bench boss admits that it was a complaint from the Toronto organization to NHL series administrators that started the whole thing.
It appears that Tampa is picking up right where the Leafs left off after Bergeron was yanked from the draw six times in Boston’s Game 2 loss after winning 13 of 23 draws unimpeded the Bruins' Game 1 win.
Boston Bruins
“I was told in the Toronto series that the issue early on in the series that was brought up by the opposition was they didn’t feel the center ice men were stopping, coming to a stop before the puck was dropped,” said Cassidy. “That is what the linesmen sort of were instructing both sides, I presume. From there I haven’t heard anything else.
“Obviously, we’ve got to do a better job whatever the case is, whether we’re in or we’re kicked out, to start winning our share of pucks. I think that has shown up probably in shot total, shot attempts and yeah, [needing] the puck more intended to generate more. Hopefully, we can get that squared away going forward tomorrow.”
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Clearly, the gamesmanship worked for the Lightning as Bergeron dropped to 11 of 23 on the dot in Game 2, and as a team, the Bruins dropped from 49 percent face-off wins in Game 1 to just 43 percent face-off wins in Game 2. Bergeron certainly took note of it in the Toronto series, but it was something he planned to grind his way through even if it appears to be a complaint from opponents designed expressly to lessen his dominating influence in games.
It certainly feels as if there's some level of unfairness to something like face-offs being called any differently now in the playoffs than they were in the regular season when Bergeron won 57 percent of his draws.
“It’s up to me to get back at it and get better. There’s no ways around it when you get kicked out,” said Bergeron, when asked about it in the first round against the Leafs. “Face-offs are a big part of my game and I have my opinion about it, but that being said there’s not much I can do. Just look forward and try to be better.
“I guess I just call it adversity, and that I need to be better. That’s it. You try to understand a little better from night-to-night with the linesmen and communicating with them, and understanding what they want from me. It’s like anything else, you adapt, you adjust and that’s what you need to do.”
Bergeron and the Bruins are certainly taking the right attitude about as the face-off issue crops up again in another playoff series, but it’s starting to feel like they’re specifically being targeted for something simply because they do it very, very well.