This column aims to set up Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final between Florida and Vegas Tuesday, and I’ll get to that in a minute. First, I need to say something.
I will go to my grave believing that if “Marchand for the series” went down, the Bruins would be alive and gunning for the Stanley Cup at this moment.
You know the play I’m talking about. Game 5 of the first round was tied, with less than 10 seconds left. Patrice Bergeron won a defensive-zone draw. Brad Marchand made sure of it. He jumped off the high inside hash and poked the loose puck past Brandon Montour and through the neutral zone, with six seconds left.
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In the next 3.8 seconds, Marchand blew past Montour and Matthew Tkachuk, who called to the bench for a change. Maybe Tkachuk was thinking if he hustled to the bench, a teammate could jump on and angle off Marchand. It didn’t happen.
With 2.2 seconds left, Marchand got his next touch, just inside the far blue line. He dusted off the puck, and with 1.1 seconds left, he loaded a shot between the circles. His stick bowed and he released, in the span of 0.2 seconds.
Florida goalie Sergei Bobrovsky stopped him, flaring his right pad, with 0.8 seconds left.
You know what happened in the next two games.
Marchand would say in the immediate aftermath, the Bruins having squandered a chance to win the series on home ice, that he shot too early. He knew it. But those were the slimmest of margins. It wasn’t a grievous error that he made. It was quite nearly a history-making hustle play.
Ten seconds in a seven-game series. So many other moments and sequences keep replaying in my brain.
It would be no surprise if the Bruins themselves still aren’t over it. As spring turns into summer, I have yet to converse with a single fan who has moved on. I also understand any fan who just wants to hibernate from hockey until October.
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“It should’ve been done in Game 5,” Marchand said five days afterward, as the Bruins cleaned out their lockers. “We had opportunities in Game 6 to close out and we had multiple leads. Them tying it up in Game 7 with a minute left, yeah that sucks, but it’s the ones before that I kind of look at, and those are the ones that sting more.”
Six weeks later, we’re waiting for the Bruins to make their first major move to reshape a roster that demands it, and the Panthers appear to be on the ropes entering Game 5, as they trail Vegas, three games to one. Tkachuk can barely shoot a puck. Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov (one goal) has barely shown up. Bobrovsky looks ordinary.
Given another chance at the Cup, Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy has put his stamp on this series. The first player he sat down with after taking his new job last June was Jack Eichel. A year later, Eichel’s newfound defensive excellence is helping neutralize that deep cast of Panthers forwards. Florida forechecked its way to the Final, and now it’s floundering.
Adin Hill, the fifth netminder Cassidy has used this season, has made the necessary stops, none better than his paddle robbery on Nick Cousins in Game 1, but he is expecting shots to come from the outside. The large and mobile Vegas defense, led by Alex Pietrangelo and Shea Theodore, is doing what Cassidy teams do: playing a tight neutral-zone structure with a nearly impenetrable defensive zone.
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They take away the middle on zone entries, they deny the slot when a team starts cycling, and most importantly against the Panthers, they have four or five players back against the rush. Shots of any kind are contested. To beat that kind of passive defense, teams have to string together three or four passes. If they make a mistake, Vegas quickly counters.
Offensively, Vegas keeps finishing its chances up and down the lineup, forcing Florida to chase the game. Cassidy calls on a different “Marchy,” Jonathan Marchessault, who is a candidate for the Conn Smythe with a playoff-best 13 goals and 24 points.
Hard not to feel good for Marchessault, previously let go by the Panthers in the 2017 expansion draft. Same goes for captain Mark Stone, who has shrugged off serious back trouble to play his uniquely brilliant all-around game.
Three things I believe: 1. Cassidy’s style grew stale here. It happens; 2. Jim Montgomery was the right voice to replace him. The Bruins won 65 games this season; 3. Montgomery has some growing to do.
The level of faith in Montgomery shouldn’t change if Cassidy wins the Cup. Regardless, he enters Year 2 with something to prove.
Meanwhile, Tuesday will be the first time the Panthers have faced elimination since April 27 at TD Garden. They held the Bruins at bay three times, then rolled over the Maple Leafs (4-1) and Hurricanes (4-0). Now they have run into the Golden Knights, who stomped them in the first two games, allowed an overtime winner in Game 3 — Carter Verhaeghe . . . of course — and held on in Game 4.
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The Cup will be in Vegas Tuesday, four years and one day after Cassidy’s last shot at it with the Bruins. Makes sense if you’re rooting for him to bring the Cup home to the Cape, where he makes his offseason home. He gave everything he had to the Bruins, his favorite team.
But if you haven’t watched a second of this series, believe me, I get it.
Matt Porter can be reached at matthew.porter@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter: @mattyports.