Carolina Hurricanes at Boston Bruins: Game 2 Keys, Lineups, and Game Hub

After a two-day lay off, the Carolina Hurricanes and Boston Bruins are set to square off for game two of the Eastern Conference Final this afternoon at TD Garden.

The final 20 minutes of game one is what decided the fate of the opener, a game that quickly slipped away from the Canes for a plethora of different reasons. Today, they have a chance to steal a game and head home with Boston’s home ice advantage neutralized.

Here are some keys for Carolina game two, plus projected lineups for both clubs:

Be Smart

The Hurricanes went to the box five times in game one, including three times in the third period, where the Bruins scored twice and took the game back away for Carolina.

Obviously, the officiating was a gigantic mess in game one, but the Hurricanes didn’t do themselves any favors. For example, Jordan Staal’s boarding penalty was textbook. That’s never not gonna get called.

Carolina desperately needs to play smart and not give into the frustration that playing against this Bruins team can cause. Boston’s power play is just too good, and TD Garden is just too hostile.

Build off of Early Power Play Momentum

It took the Hurricanes all of three seconds to net a PPG on their first man advantage in game one, and their subsequent power plays showed promise despite not getting the results.

Andrei Svechnikov’s presence on that first unit was felt instantly, and Jordan Staal’s faceoff acumen will be huge for them to gain possession from the start. That first unit had good movement, retrieved pucks, and were able to be a legitimate threat.

We’ll see if the second unit can provide any kind of depth there, but the Canes should be able to make the man advantage an actual advantage if the first unit is able to pick up where they left off in game one.

Hurricanes Lines

The Hurricanes practiced on Saturday and featured largely the same lines from game one, minus Jordan Martinook who had a maintenance day.

As of now, it seems like it’ll be the same lines and pairings from Thursday, which look like this:

Andrei Svechnikov - Sebastian Aho - Teuvo Teravainen
Nino Niederreiter - Jordan Staal - Justin Williams
Warren Foegele - Lucas Wallmark - Brock McGinn
Micheal Ferland - Greg McKegg - Jordan Martinook

Jaccob Slavin - Dougie Hamilton
Brett Pesce - Justin Faulk
Haydn Fleury - Calvin de Haan

Petr Mrazek
Curtis McElhinney

Inuries and Scratches: Trevor van Riemsdyk (shoulder), Saku Maenalanen (hand), Patrick Brown (emergency call-up, healthy), Jake Bean (emergency call-up, healthy)

Bruins Lines

The Bruins will be riding high after their big game one win on Thursday, and they’ll get a big-time player back in the lineup with Charlie McAvoy returning from his one-game suspension.

Forward Noel Acciari is on the brink of returning, likely when the series shifts to Raleigh this week, but he will not play today. Here’s what Boston’s lines and d-pairing are expected to look like in game two, based on their Saturday practice:

Brad Marchand - Patrice Bergeron - David Pastrnak
Jake DeBrusk - David Krejci - David Backes
Marcus Johansson - Charlie Coyle - Danton Heinen
Joakim Nordstrom - Sean Kuraly - Austin Wagner

Zdeno Chara - Charlie McAvoy
Torey Krug - Brandon Carlo
Matt Grzelcyk - Connor Clifton

Tuukka Rask
Jaroslav Halak