The
Bruins are raring to engage a rival from eastern Pennsylvania in the Eastern
Conference semifinals, the same stage where they met the same adversary last
season. There, they will vie to redeem an incomparable collapse that saw them
spill a three-games-to-none lead en route to Game 7 defeat.
Just
substitute “Providence” for “Boston,” “AHL” for “NHL” and “Wilkes-Barre/Scranton
Penguins” for “Philadelphia Flyers.” Apart from that, the pre-series parallels
lend this 2013-14 saga a Xerox of 2010-11 for Bruins buffs.
For
stretching addicts, one can add the fact that last year’s Providence-Scranton
set began and ended on Bruins property. This time, the second round will start
in Pennsylvania with the No. 6 Baby Pens sitting one seed above the Baby Bs.
Furthermore,
the P-Bruins stamped their passport to this rematch with a winner-take-all
first-round triumph over a historic playoff nemesis. Saturday’s 6-3 romp at
MassMutual Center secured the 22-year-old franchise’s first postseason victory
in three tries against the Springfield Falcons and four tries against any
Springfield-based adversary.
Here are five other
ice chips of trivia pertaining to the upcoming Bruins-Penguins Calder Cup
playoff renewal:
· Seven
members of the current Providence roster were in action for that fateful 5-0
falter last May 22: Tommy Cross, Craig Cunningham, Jared Knight, Bobby Robins,
Ryan Spooner, Niklas Svedberg and David
Warsofsky. All except Cross dressed for the opening round series with
Springfield.
· Five
other P-Bruins who started the previous Wilkes-Barre/Scranton series are now suiting
up with the parent club. Defensemen Matt
Bartkowski and Torey Krug were
called up amidst each team’s 2013 postseason run. Fellow blueliner Kevan Miller and forwards Jordan Caron and Justin Florek stayed with Providence through at least last season’s
end.
· The
Penguins are fielding five holdovers from 12 months ago: Defensemen Brian Dumoulin, Reid McNeill and Philip
Samuelsson; centers Zach Sill
and Dominik Uher.
· Former
Boston Bruins winger Chuck Kobasew has
been with the Penguins’ farm club for the better part of the last two months.
The 12-year professional veteran led Wilkes-Barre/Scranton with three goals and
six points in a 3-1 first-round upset of the Binghamton Senators.
That 3-3-6
scoring log of his matches his 11-game postseason output as a member of the
Spoked-Bs in 2009. Boston’s Game 7 second-round loss to Carolina that year was
Kobasew’s last postseason game in any league until this spring.
The last time Kobasew partook in the Calder Cup playoffs? That would be 2005, when future teammate Patrice Bergeron and the P-Bruins ousted his Lowell Lock Monsters in the second round.
· The
AHL Penguins bear another veteran NHL winger in Tom Kostopolous, who like Kobasew last saw Stanley Cup tournament action
in 2009. Kostopolous was on the 2007-08 and 2008-09 Montreal teams that traded
first-round victories with Kobasew’s Bruins.
In addition, his previous AHL
campaign also ended at the hands of the P-Bruins, who dethroned his Manchester
Monarchs in six games in those aforementioned 2005 playoffs.
