Bruins notebook: Boston’s penalty kill was great, but got tested way too often

Boston’s Brad Marchand, center, took five penaltuies in the series against Washington for the Bruins – who led the NHL in minor penalties taken during the regular season with 199. Matt Slocum/Associated Press

If you were looking for difference-makers in Boston’s five-game series victory over the Washington Capitals, the penalty kill is a good place to start.

The Bruins held off 18 of Washington’s 21 power-play advantages, sometimes refusing to let the Caps’ potent PP unit set up, other times flinging their bodies in front of rockets off the sticks of Alex Ovechkin and others.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that the Bruins continued their penchant for law-breaking that they established in the regular season, when they led the league in minor penalties taken (199).

Leading the pack against Washington was Brad Marchand with five minors. Early in the series, he was up to his old chicanery, getting into it with the opposition after the whistle. In the last two games, he was nailed with a pair of phantom calls – interference in Game 4 on a battle for inside position with John Carlson, then again in Game 5 in a puck battle with Carlson, earning a laughable “roughing” penalty.

As bad as those last two calls may have been, Marchand forfeited some benefit of the doubt with his mischief earlier in the series. Despite making great strides in getting the type of infractions that could get him suspended, those calls were based on his reputation.

On Monday, GM Don Sweeney acknowledged both the excellence of the penalty kill and the troubling issue that allowed it to shine.

“I mean, we took 21 minors in the course of the series, that’s far too many. Self-inflicted. We had two too-many-men penalties and we threw it in the stands a couple of times. You can’t necessarily count those ones as being not disciplined enough,” said Sweeney. “(Marchand) early on is getting into the series, and you guys know as well as I do, he’s highly competitive. He’s going to get pushed and he’s going to push back and occupy space and territory. He got caught a couple of times.

“Overall, our staff did a really nice job. They were well prepared for what Washington was going to try to throw at us. It took an awful lot of courage – you saw (Connor) Clifton, even without his stick one time, lay down. (Brandon) Carlo, significant blocks. All of our players did a really good job of dialing in on what the staff wanted them to do in all three zones of pressure. It takes a lot of courage to stand in front of some of those shots, but also a lot of discipline. And we have to exercise a little bit more of that. Being in the box 21 times in five games is too much.”

INJURY REPORT: Sweeney said the Bruins are expecting defenseman Kevan Miller, Jeremy Lauzon and Jakub Zboril to be back and available at some point not far down the road, while defenseman Steven Kampfer and forward Ondrej Kasé are done for the season.

The Bruins are taking both Monday and Tuesday off before resuming preparation for the second round of the playoffs. The earliest that series could start is Friday. Sweeney met with the media and offered updates on his team’s injured players. Sweeney said Miller is in the early stages of recovery after his collision with Dmitry Orlov in Game 4.

“Latest update, doing OK, still early in the recovery phase. We’ll probably know as the week goes along how he progresses,” Sweeney said. “He’s obviously back home. When he’s in the facility, we’ll check-in. But it’s still early in the process.”

Lauzon (lower body) and Zboril (upper body) are both close enough that Sweeney thought this series was possible.

“Our hope is that they’ll both be available for the next series. Again, we’ll probably have a better understanding Wednesday on how they continue to progress and get on the ice,” he said. “Until they’re in a practice with the main group, we won’t really know, but hopefully we get a little extra time and they can move along in the healing process. Then obviously getting up to full speed to become fully available for us.”

Kampfer is out after having arm and hand surgery. Kasé, who missed most of the year, returned for one game before being injured again, is also done.

Sweeney added that he thought many of the Bruins would use the extra time between series to get their second vaccination shot to give them time to work through the symptoms.