Reblogged from paulmara-deactivated20120409
Boston Sports - A Fan's Take
Opinions and Comments About the Latest Sports Topics
I also would like to just take the time and say how DISGUSTED I am with some Bruins fans. These aren’t the real fans that pour their heart and soul into this team, who feels the heartbreak when the players do; who are always behind them through the ups and downs. These racist comments are coming from those who just jump on the band waggon because they want to win and then when they don’t they are sore losers. I feel very ashamed right now to be apart of Bruins nation. Not to mention the team coming out with their own statement; how can we do that to them? What we do as fans reflects the whole city and organization and I don’t know about any of you but I don’t want to be anything thought of like Vancouver. It’s just a sport; yes a sport I live in breathe for, but its a sport, no need to slander anyone.!!!
So yes Bruins nation, last night at exactly 10:23pm Joel Ward scored the overtime winner for the Washington Capitals, and at that exact moment the entire TD Garden went silent. I love my boys in black-and-gold, but they were NOT the better team in this series. I look to Game 4 as the turning point, the Capitals are without one of their best players in Backstrom while he was serving his 1 game suspension and the Bruins couldn’t take the win. That game right there would have been the difference maker. The Bruins had an amazing season for defending Stanley cup champs, but this was not the same team as last year. Yes I do think the Bruins ARE a better team than the Capitals but that’s not how they played. The Capitals picked up their game and brought it to the next level while the Bruins did not. You could look to many different things as to why the Bruins lost but I look to the obvious for some time now, the Power-Play. Their power-play has been pathetic, last year it didn’t hurt them but this year it did. With a little over 2:00 minutes remaining on the clock the Bruins go on the PP but can’t do a SINGLE thing with it. Now I don’t want to be calling for anyone’s head but I think the front office needs to take a serious look at that department and system and change something because whatever they have been doing is NOT WORKING!!!! I also fell the Bruins missed Nathan Horton very much and it showed. We don’t know how bad Horton’s case is but if it is anything like Marc Savard’s then the Bruins need to go out this off-season and pick up a goal scorer. I hate to say this, but I would trade Tim Thomas for whatever I could get, good draft picks, or players because this is also the 2nd year in a row that Lucic (whom is one of my favorites) did not show up for the first round; and for someone who is suppose to be a big time player wasn’t there. Now I don’t know if he was in his own head, but you could just tell he was no where near confident when he had that puck on his stick. Tyler Seguin stepped up when he needed too probably scoring the “dirtiest” goal of his career for the Bruins as Jack Edwards said.
Bottom line — the front office has some work here to do this offseason and I think one of the most important ones is the goaltending because Tuukka Rask is no longer signed and he could play as a #1 goalie for ANY other team.
Bruins Celebrating their Game Six win off of Tyler Seguin’s OT winner.
Game 7’s are not unfamiliar territory for the Bruins. Tonight at 7:30 pm is puck drops at the TD Garden between eastern conference foes the Boston Bruins and the Washington Capitals. So far in this seven game series the first 6 games have been 1 goal decision games. This is the definition of playoff hockey. Both teams are playing extremely sound defensively and both goalies have been right on point. But in game 7’s none of that really matters. In a game 7 it can all come down to one mistake; physical or mental, or a lucky bounce. The biggest thing for the Boston Bruins in game 7 is crashing the net. When the Bruins have crashed the net this series they have been successful, but when they don’t they still are managing to get shots off but they aren’t “quality” shots; they are letting Holtby see everything.
Tim Thomas said perfectly after practice on Tuesday “If you want to be the one that comes out on top in Game 7, you have to be the one who is willing to pay the price and be the one that is prepared to give everything you have from what’s inside you”.
If you want to get PUMPED UP I personally recommend listening to 98.5 the sports hub (FM). Toucher and Rich - Gresh and Zo - and Felger and Mazz — 3 GREAT SHOWS!!
Friday April 20th, 2012.
The Boston Bruins reported to TD Garden at noon time today. They stayed in off-ice meetings for over an hour and then fianlly hit the Garden Ice at 1:15pm. As they hit the ice the first thing that caught your eye were the lines. Nothing was the same.
The most notable change is Brad Marchand moving down from the second line to the fourth line, with Shawn Thornton and Greg Campbell. But as we all know Marchand started off his rookie year on the “energy” line and he was so efficient that he got promoted to the 2nd line. Maybe Julien’s hoping to give the little ball of hate some motivation (even though NO ONE should need it; its the Stanley Cup Playoffs!!).
Here’s what the rest of the forward lines look like:
Lucic — Krejci — Rolston
Paille — Bergeron — Peverley
Pouliot/Caron — Kelly — Seguin
Marchand — Campbell — Thornton
Julien explained that line changes are about shaking things up, finding spark. Not so much about individuals; although some do need to step it up if the Bruins are hoping to advance to the next round.
Rookie Goaltender Braden Holtby; looking up to the scoreboard during last nights game against the Boston Bruins.
Last night Rookie goaltender Braden Holtby stunned the Bruins with a 45 save night. Boston’s lone goal of the game came from Peverley in the later stages of the first period off a 2-on-1. The Bruins got quite a lot of chances, but Holtby was seeing the puck extremely well. What the Bruins need to focus on is crashing the night. In my observation last night the Bruins were getting their shots, but how many of them were really quality shots. A chunk of their shots were point shots with no one in front of the net to either screen Holtby or to try and produce a rebound.
In Game 3 the reason I think the Bruins were sop successful and found holes in Branden Holtby was because they were crashing the net and making their presence known. Holtby is only a 22-year-old Rookie goaltender making his first appearance in the Stanley Cup playoffs, he will get nervous and he will make mistakes but the Bruins can’t be letting him see the puck the whole way.
Not too take away anything from Holtby because he has been frustrating the Bruins, but I think Boston is making him look better than what he really is.
Tonight at 7:30 puck drops for Game 4 Bruins against the Capitals at the Verizon Center. The Bruins currently hold a 2-1 series advantage. Each of the 3 games this series has only been decided by one goal. Both teams are playing exceptionally well defensively and have had exhibited some semblance of professional goaltending.
The first 2 games of the series lacked physical emotion, but that all changed during Game 3. About 10 seconds into the game Alexander Ovechkin landed a brutal hit on Bruins defensemen Dennis Seidenberg and that right there set the tone for the rest of the game. There were some scraps after the whistles a lot of taunting from both sides. But close to the end of the game with about 3 minutes remaining, an altercation occurred with Milan Lucic and Karl Alzner which ended with Alzner gesturing that Lucic is a “cry baby”. About 30 seconds later Zdeno Chara scored the winning goal. At the end of the game Capitals forward Nicklas Bäckström gave a cross-check to Bruins forward Rich Peverly and got a match penalty.
Brendan Shanahan ended up suspending Nicklas Bäckström for one game. The Capitals did not agree with this suspension and came out with the following statements. Dale Hunter the coach stated
“After the whistles and before the puck was dropped they were going after us. Lucic was going after [Backstrom’s head], but we’ve got to play through it and protect the players on the ice,”
Then the owner of the Capitals… Ted Leonsis came out with the statement
“There is no need to comment or complain right now in a public forum — we made our case in the hearing; it didn’t register on NHL officials. Complaining may make us feel better but it won’t help us in our preparation for Thursday’s game — it is all about focus and attention to detail for us in this coming match up now. We have beaten the Bruins without Bäckström in the lineup this season; we need to take positive thoughts into this next game.”
“We can’t let the officials play a role in our game planning — we need to remain disciplined and remember that the defending Stanley Cup champs will always get the benefit of the doubt; we need to rise above the noise and focus on signal; play tight defense — capitalize on Boston’s mistakes — score when we get a power play; continue to rely on strong play in net. Don’t retaliate to plays after the whistle. “
Haven’t the Capitals learned from last year that you can’t play mind games with the Bruins? They are playing right into the hands of the Boston Bruins. And that’s how we like it.
Now I don’t anticipate they’re to be any rough stuff after the whistle tonight clearly from the way last night’s games were called, but I am expecting a nice, tough, fair, physical hockey game.
BE BACK AT PUCK DROP! J
Benoit Pouliot answered your questions in the second segment of #AskTheBs.
BENNY ANSWERED MY QUESTION LOOK AT IT LOOK AT IT.
Today is the day… the real season finally begins. At 7:30 pm Eastern Time tonight the Boston Bruins takes on the Washington Capitals at TD Garden. This series proves to be a tough challenge in hand for the Bruins first considering, Washington took the season series 3-1. Not to mention the Bruins just shut down Nathan Horton yesterday. But in a lot of ways this team proves to be even better than last year. The young star forwards (Brad Marchand, and Tyler Seguin) both had incredible sophomore seasons. Seguin finished the regular season one goal shy of hitting the 30-goal mark, but he tripled his stats compared to his first season and was the youngest Bruin in franchise history to lead the club in scoring. Marchand finished the season two goals short of the 30-goal mark. These two young guns skating alongside in my opinion the BEST 2-way forward Patrice Bergeron, anything is possible.
Plus we hold a slight edge in net.
I remember being at Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals, and that day was probably one of the best days of my life. The feeling you had when Horton finally scored that goal with about 6 minutes left in the 3rd was something that was just indescribable. LET’S GO BRUINS!!
(Source: nhlbruins)
