Tag: NHL

Bruins Win Game One

The Bruins won game one of their second round series against the Rangers last night on an overtime goal by Brad Marchand.  Here’s the highlight video.

The game seemed pretty even to my untrained eye through three periods.  The two goals Rask let in looked a touch on the soft side.  The first one more so.  Shockingly, the first goal that Lundqvist let in was just plain bad.  If Heinrich is going to be letting soft goals in then the Bruins have a chance.  If he brings his A game each night then… well… let’s say that Bruins chances will be significantly slimmer.

In overtime the Bruins were dominant.  They had one power play where they were able to set up in the Rangers zone and blitz them with shots for nearly the full two minutes.  The Rangers had a few chances in OT, but for the most part the Bruins had them on the heels the whole time.

The game winning goal was a thing of beauty.  It was Marchand’s first goal of the post season, and it came on a perfect centering pass from Patrice Bergeron.  Bergie is your MVP kids.  Don’t ever forget that.

Game two isn’t until Sunday.  Why?

Go Bruins!

2013 NHL Semifinal Predictions

Before I move on to my 2nd round predictions, let us recap my first round predictions.

As always, these are based on nothing more than gut.  There is no actual research involved in the making of my NHL playoff predictions.  Basically, Robbie is guessing.

In the first round I picked:

Penguins over the Islanders.  The Penguins won.  I was right.
Senators over the Canadiens.  The Senators won.  I was right.
Rangers over Capitols.  The Rangers won.  I was right.
Bruins over Maple Leafs.  The Bruins won.  I was right.
Blackhawks over Wild.  The Blackhawks won.  I was right.
Ducks over Red Wings.  The Ducks lost.  I was wrong.
Sharks over Canucks.  The Sharks won.  I was right.
Kings over Blues.  The Kings won.  I was right.

I should play the freakin’ lottery, right?  That’s seven correct out of eight.  Someone is pretty good at picking the first round, and it’s me.  Damn straight.

The second round, however, is where I usually look like an idiot.

Here are my second round predictions:

Penguins vs Senators.  How about those Ottawa Senators, eh?  They showed those heavily favored Canadiens how it was done.  Let me tell you a story… Jen and I were sitting in a bar at Mohegan Sun waiting for the doors to open for the Rush concert last Thursday.  At a table next to us was a Rhode Islander and two guys from Montreal whom he’d just met for the first time moments before.  They started talking hockey.  One of the Montreal guys gave some horseshit story about how he was a hockey fan first and a Canadiens fan second, and how he doesn’t hate or root against any team because he just loves the game and blah blah blah and he’s sitting with a Bruins fan in a bar in New England and just wants to play nice out of fear he’ll get beaten up so he’s all up with people and lovey dovey and yadda yadda yadda.  He went on to say how he never had anything against the Senators and how there was no real rivalry between Ottawa and Montreal prior to the series.  “But there sure is now!” he says.  Later that night the Senators eliminated the Canadiens.  It was glorious.  Congratulations Ottawa, you have won your way to the second round where you will be blown off the face of the Earth by the Penguins.  Huzzah and all that!  Pittsburgh wins this series.

Bruins vs Rangers.  Now we’re talking.  No it’s not Bruins vs Canadiens, but if you want a rivalry this is a pretty good one.  Boston vs New York.  I have to be honest, again, and say that I don’t see the Bruins surviving this.  They beat the Rangers easily a couple of times early in the season, but that was a different Bruins team.  There are two Bruins teams this year.  The one that played the first half of the third period last night in game seven against the Leafs, and the one that played the second half of the third period last night in game seven against the Leafs.  If the first Bruins team shows up the Rangers will win easily.  If the second Bruins team shows up it will be an awesome series and either team has a shot.  In a rare show of Bruins based optimism I am going to say the second team shows up and that this series is epic from start to finish.  I’m also going to say that the Bruins will win it, but I live in Boston so if I said anything else I’d be thrown off the Tobin Bridge.  Yes, I pick the Bruins, but they are going to need their A+ game for 60 minutes a night and I haven’t seen them do that yet.  My fingers are crossed.

Now on to the Western Conference.  Also known as the conference I hardly followed at all this year.

Blackhawks vs Red Wings.  I really didn’t think the Wings had it in them this year.  They are old and not nearly the team they used to be.  Still, they made it happen against the Ducks.  The Blackhawks however, do have it in them this year.  They have been the team to beat in the West since day one.  This is a great rivalry, and it should be a fun series to watch, but the Red Wings are going to be golfing when it ends, and the Hawks will be sharpening their skates for round three.

Kings vs Sharks.  California dreamin’ on such a winter’s day.  Yeah, dude, like surfs up down at the ice rink.  Okay, I’ll stop being that asshole.  I’m just really happy that these two teams are matched up because it allows me to safely bet against the Sharks.  99 out of 100 times, when I pick the Sharks they make me look stupid.  The first round was that one out of 100 times when they make me look smart.  The odds are no longer in my favor.  Likewise, I like the Kings.  Always have.  Now I can safely say that the Kings will defeat the Sharks and I don’t have to question my gut at all.  The Kings will win this series.

So if all goes to plan we’ll have Penguins/Bruins and Blackhawks/Kings conference finals.  See you in a couple of weeks, okay?

Go Bruins!

The Bruins Win Game Seven

I don’t know what to say…

Here’s the highlight video from NHL.com

Just… what the hell happened?

I had the game on the radio.  I listened intently and felt very distraught when Kessel made it 3-1.  When the Leafs went up 4-1 in the third I shut it off.

I posted the following on Facebook:

God damn it I hate being right sometimes. I knew this was coming as soon as I saw the match up. Friggin Bruins.

I guess I was wrong.  In this case I am very, very happy to be wrong.

They came out with serious energy in the first.  I was pleased by that.  They did not have that kind of energy in games five or six.  I thought they were going to be different in game seven, but instead of playing with the necessary intensity they went overboard and took bad penalties.  That took them out of the game, and then it was back to the blah blah blah of the previous two games.  They uninterestedly floated their way into the third period and the Leafs lit them up.  It’s the same garbage we’ve been seeing from them for more than two months now.  At 4-1 I was done.  I couldn’t take it anymore and I shut the radio off.  The hell with them.

That’s when they started playing for real.  Three goals in the last 10 minutes.  Where the hell was that Bruins team for the previous 2.66 games?  They had sucked like no 4th seed should ever suck and then, boom.  They are playing like contenders again.  What the hell?  Why didn’t they play that way all series?  What’s wrong with them that allows them to coast their way to the brink and then suddenly play like an all time great team?  I don’t get it.

To recap though, I have to give Tuukka Rask a break.  He did make some gigantic saves last night, and they did win a must win game with him in net.  I am not going to let him off the choke hook until they win a Cup with him as the number one goalie, the choke against Philly in 2010 will not be forgotten so easily, but he came through when we needed him to hold it together in a big game.  Granted, four goals against is a crappy game for any goalie, but he did what was necessary.

Also, Patrice Bergeron is the best player we have, and he’s been the best player we’ve had since the day he was drafted.  No offense to Joe Thornton, or Marc Savard, or Zdeno Chara, or Tim Thomas, or anyone else.  Patrice Bergeron is our best.  Watch that highlights video.  You can see it in his face.  He just decided the bullshit had to end, and he scored the game tying and game winning goals.  As we move forward in these playoffs it will be how Bergeron goes, the Bruins go.

Bring on the Rangers.

Go Bruins.

Overtime

Ok…

So my last post was me writing the Bruins off. I stopped listening and started watching a movie. Next thing I know my phone is ringing and Mike the Bass Player tells me they tied it in the final minutes. Now we are going to overtime.

So… Am I the bad luck? Superstitiously speaking, was my turning off the game what allowed them to come back? Should I not listen to overtime out of fear of jinxing the whole works?

Sometimes I hate playoffs.

Is Tuukka Rask Jinxed?

Let me preface this post by saying that I do not believe that Tuukka Rask is responsible for the Boston Bruins blowing a three games to one lead over the Toronto Maple Leafs in this year’s first round of the NHL playoffs.  Again, the losses in games five and six, and the necessity of a game seven later tonight are not Tuukka’s fault.  The Bruins lost those two games as a team.  No one player bares any more blame than any others (although Seguin and Marchand might have made a difference if they’d actually bothered showing up).  I am just commenting on a trend.

The Boston Bruins are currently playing their third playoff series with Tuukka Rask as their number one goalie.  In 2010 they played and beat the Buffalo Sabers in the first round with Tuukka in net.  In the second round they took a three games to none lead over the Philadelphia Flyers before blowing the series in epic fashion by losing four consecutive potential clinching games.  This year they are facing the Toronto Maple Leafs and jumped out to a three games to one lead.  In games five and six this weekend they had two opportunities to clinch the series and lost them both.

Do the math there and you will see that the Boston Bruins have lost SIX consecutive potential series clinching games IN A ROW with Tuukka Rask in net.
Why?

What is it about having Tuukka in net that makes the Bruins unable to win the most important games?

I recall having a similar discussion last year.  Tuukka’s goals against average and save percentage stats were stellar, but his win/loss record was pretty bad.  Why was it that the Bruins couldn’t, or wouldn’t, win in front of Rask?  I couldn’t answer that.  I thought that maybe he was just an asshole and maybe the rest of the team was seriously unmotivated when he was in net, but then we found out that Tim Thomas was a complete nut job and the team played like animals in front of him.

What is it about Rask?

I can’t think of a time when I saw Tuukka actually steal a game for the Bruins.  If I’m wrong about that please leave a comment with an example.  I want to be wrong.  Tim Thomas used to do it once in a while.  The Bruins would be outplayed for a solid stretch of time and Thomas would make saves that he had no business making and the Bruins would sneak in a goal or something and steal the game.  Tuukka makes big saves, but does he ever make super human saves the way Thomas could?  I don’t think so.  The Bruins needed huge saves to make up for their painful defensive lapses last night, and on at least two occasions Rask wasn’t up to the challenge.  Again, the goals were not his fault, but on a team that is contending for the Cup (which I do not believe for a second that the Bruins are) they sometimes need their goal tender to be a superman.  Rask doesn’t seem to have that ability.  At least not to my untrained eye.

Tuukka Rask reminds me a little of Roberto Luongo.  A fantastic goalie who is just. not. quite. fantastic. enough.

Game seven is tonight.  We shall see.  We shall see.

Go Bruins.

Show Time

Yesterday I turned 42. Today, if all goes according to plan, I will see Rush for the 22nd time. Do the math and I’ve seen them slightly better than once every two years since birth. By that (fuzzy) logic, I must have seen them in a bar in Toronto back in 1973 when John Rutsy was still in the band.

Far out!

The Bruins were kind enough to give me a nice birthday present last night, beating the Maple Leafs in overtime to take a 3-1 series lead. Many people are viewing the series as all but over, but they should not. How quickly we forget what happened in the last series the Bruins played with Tuukka Rask as their goalie. I shiver at the thought of Philly in 2010.

Today’s plan is to pick up the love of my life at work after lunch and then head down to the casino for Rush. We’ll come back in time for her to go to work tomorrow. We had originally both taken both today and tomorrow as vacation days, but she got pulled into lunch meetings on both days and is now working half days. Ahh the responsibilities of command.

Overtime

I hate overtime in the NHL playoffs. Is there anything more stressful, sports wise? Tonight the Leafs lead the Bruins 2-0 after one. After two they were tied at three. It stayed that way through the third. Now we wait for overtime and the inevitable heart attacks.

Go Bruins. Win the damn game on my damn birthday.