Carolina Hurricanes vs. Boston Bruins Game 1: Preview

It’s time for some playoff hockey.

Playoff. Hockey.

The Carolina Hurricanes will get the Stanley Cup Playoffs underway Monday night in PNC Arena, as the Canes and Boston Bruins kick off the entire playoffs at 7 p.m.

This certainly won’t be the first playoff meeting between the two squads, as the Canes and Bruins have now met in the playoffs for the third time in the last four seasons. As a franchise, the Hurricanes are meeting the Bruins in the playoffs for the seventh time, tied with Montreal for the most against any team.

The Hurricanes won the season series 3-0-0, the first regular season sweep over Boston in franchise history. Not only did the Canes sweep the series, they did so by outscoring the Bruins 16-1.

One of the big storylines heading into the series will be the health of netminder Frederik Andersen, who would certainly be the go-to playoff starter if not for injury. While Andersen is expected to return at some point in the playoffs, he will not be the starter for game one. Antti Raanta will likely get the nod with Pyotr Kochetkov there behind.

If you’re looking for some more in-depth series analysis, we checked out the special teams matchup on Saturday and the goaltending battle on Sunday. We’ll have a skaters one coming later today.

Also, don’t forget to join our Playoff Pick’Em Challenge here, for the chance to win some pretty strong bragging rights and nothing else. You have until puck drop tonight.

---

Game Notes

• Rod Brind’Amour has been involved in 56 of the Hurricanes’ 58 playoff wins since relocation.
• Carolina is 29-20 all-time in PNC Arena during the playoffs, and the Canes have won eight of their last nine seven-game series starting on home ice.
• With 204 points in the regular season from defensemen, the Canes set a new franchise record in blue-line scoring this season.
• A lot of players have franchise playoff milestones within reach. Here’s a full list of those, from the Canes’ game notes:

Canes PR