The queries were plentiful in the immediate aftermath of the Boston Bruins' 4-3 overtime loss to the Ottawa Senators Sunday evening at the TD Garden, which not only clinched this Eastern Conference quarterfinal series for Ottawa but put an end to Boston's season.
The Ottawa Senators have officially advanced to the second round of the 2017 Stanley Cup playoffs.
FAR AWAY EYES: MacArthur's power play goal nearly (but not quite) made you forget a Senators special teams unit that embarrassed itself by failing to get a single shot on goal while the Bruins kept stabbing themselves with an unheard of three delay-of-game penalties in the 15:11.
Ryan had the game-winning goal in Games 4 and 5, assisted on the series-winning goal and finished up the first round with four goals and seven points in six games.
After five extra periods in four overtime games, the Ottawa Senators will get a chance to rest before meeting the New York Rangers in the second round of the National Hockey League playoffs.
Drew Stafford and Patrice Bergeron tallied for the Bruins, with Brad Marchand assisting on both goals.
The B's scored their second goal of the game in the third period by taking advantage of a lazy change by Ottawa. Fans of both the Senators and the Rangers are excited to see the two teams play against each other in the post-season.
Boucher knocked down speculation that MacArthur would rejoin Bobby Ryan's line to try to get Ryan going (Ryan has been able to flip that switch anyway) and instead put MacArthur on the fourth line.
"We're ready", Johansson said.
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Leicester stayed tightly locked on defense even after conceding the goal, making sure it headed back to England with a chance. Leicester also had to overcome a first-leg loss to a Spanish club in the last 16, eliminating Sevilla 3-2 on aggregate.
Craig Anderson only seemed to get better as the series went on, and he'd had an excellent year.
"They gave us everything they had, and we had to work hard for it and we had to stick with it for a long time", Johansson said.
"My first experience (in the playoffs), I ended up in the box on the last game of the season", Pastrnak said. He was placed on Boston's top power play unit and he killed penalties. During the regular season, the teams met three times, with the Rangers winning two of the games and the Senators winning one.
Both Kuraly and Acciari spurred Boston's forechecking efforts - with the makeshift line of Kuraly-David Backes-Acciari almost generating a goal in Game 6 off of a sustained shift around Senators goalie Craig Anderson. "I think that's going to be the biggest key for (Sunday)".
The Senators took a 2-1 lead through two periods.
Capitals defenseman Karl Alzner, who has missed the past three games with an upper-body injury, is "progressing" but still day to day, according to Trotz. I think what made our success during the year was when we took it a game at a time and never got ahead of ourselves.
"I told the players the No. 1 asset that everybody has to have is the ability to rebound right away after the game", said Senators coach Guy Boucher.
Depth and versatility, and of course goaltending, are on the table for the team as it shifts from its bruising victory over the Canadiens to what figures to be a more tactical series against the Senators starting Thursday. Showed mettle in the face of half his defense wiped out by injury and center David Krejci going back out of the lineup Sunday after a Game 5 knee-to-knee hit with Chris Wideman.
"I don't think we think about it at this point, during the regular season that's one thing", said Marc Methot.
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