Boston Bruins Should Change Nothing but the Course of the Series in Game 3

The momentum in the Eastern Conference quarterfinals, along with home ice and the concomitant, coveted last change is out of the Boston Bruins’ clutch for the next two games.

Accordingly, the Bruins will need to use their offense as an integral part of their defense if they are to regain the upper hand on the Washington Capitals.

To date, through a split of the first two games at TD Garden, Boston’s only lead in the series has lasted one second. It was spawned when Chris Kelly instantaneously settled a 1-0 Game 1 victory in overtime Thursday night.

The Capitals, on the other hand, found enough of a way around the unfavorable Zdeno Chara-Alexander Ovechkin matchup to hold a 1-0 advantage for 14 minutes and 16 seconds in an eventual 2-1 overtime triumph Saturday afternoon.

Equal credit is owed to each of the contesting blue lines and backstops for making a defensive arm-wrestling match out of this series. Both teams have tuned the opposing mesh twice, each striking once on an overtime slapper and once on a combination of grit and good fortune in regulation.

Troy Brouwer granted Ovechkin his first point of the series by converting his setup late in Saturday’s second period. From the porch of Boston goaltender Tim Thomas’s cage, Brouwer poked the puck home through a mousehole-sized opening beneath Thomas and defenseman Greg Zanon.

Benoit Pouliot mustered the equalizer in the third period through an intrepid hustle to the same basic dirty-nose area. Converging on Brian Rolston’s forward pass with Capitals goalie Braden Holtby, Pouliot spooned a bar-down backhander home.

As detailed on the official play-by-play sheet, Brower’s conversion was made from within six feet. Pouliot’s homeward-bound shot was unleashed a mere 16 feet from the cage.

Only eight of the game’s other 81 shots on net came from a closer range. The Bruins took only seven registered stabs, including Pouliot’s goal, from within 25 feet or less.

The only top-six forward to shoot from within an intimate distance on even strength was Rich Peverley, who thrust an 11-foot slapper at Holtby in the first minute of the second overtime.

Brad Marchand could have deposited a game-changing, wraparound rebound early in the second regulation stanza. Moments after Holtby repelled Krejci’s 19-foot tip and split seconds after Patrice Bergeron’s 21-foot wrister brushed off the goalie’s boot and the near post, Marchand arrived from behind the net too late to collect the fugitive biscuit.

As evidenced by Brouwer and Pouliot’s subsequent strikes, that is the requisite type of opportunism for beating Thomas and Holtby alike. And under altered circumstances, Marchand would have given the Bruins the regulation lead that has eluded them throughout the wee phases of this series.

Just as critically, if not more so, Holtby would have been subjected to another new playoff experience, namely having to recover from a deficit-inducing setback when there is still more hockey to be played before hitting the showers.

To date, all of Boston’s 2012 postseason scoring credit is split strictly amongst the third line of Pouliot, Kelly and Brian Rolston. Once the top six forwards―and, for that matter, the point patrollers―find a solution to Holtby, the Bruins' odds of playing with a lead will instantaneously swell.

There is only so much head coach Claude Julien can and should do, especially with the shift in scenery for the next two games. As much as he will still desire to place Chara and Dennis Seidenberg in Ovechkin’s path on the fly to the best of his ability, it is on his strikers to start clicking.

No forward unit or power-play brigade should be subject to personnel shuffles at this time. Boston’s skaters simply need to crash Holtby’s property more assertively and with intent to issue Ovechkin and Co. the challenge of recompensing their young goalie’s errors.