Tag: playoffs

Bruins Win Game Three

I have to admit, I’m completely hockey shocked. Last night the Bruins beat the Rangers in game three by a score of 2-1. The Bruins were down 1-0 after two periods and got two goals in the third from the fourth line. How the hell does anyone’s fourth line beat Heinrich Lundqvist twice in one period?

The Bruins now lead the series 3-0. I really thought the Rangers were going to beat us badly this round. I really did. I said before that there have been two Bruins teams this year. The awesome Bruins were the team we saw in the first half of this stupid mini-season. The crappy Bruins were the team we saw in the second half. It had been months since we saw the awesome Bruins, and therefore we had no reason to expect to see them again. Somehow though they are back and completely in control of this series.

But the first person to say that the 3-0 lead makes us a lock to win the series gets the entire 2010 post season shoved right down his/her throat. Never forget. Never again.

Game four is tomorrow night (I think). Close it out then.

Go Bruins!

Bruins Game Three

Hey, check it out… A post that isn’t about Flickr or Yahoo!

The Bruins trail the Rangers 1-0 after two periods. Lundqvist has been super human. The Rangers have not had a penalty called against them yet, even though Chara took a high stick to the head and was bloodied up.

The Bruins need to break through Heinrich in the third. We cannot let those friggin’ New Yorkers back into this series.

Go Bruins!

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!

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.