I could sit here and dispute every call made last night. I could complain that the referees took this game from Boston, took their captain off the ice for 17 minutes, took their momentum and threw it out the window. Instead, I am going to follow suit with what this organization has done. Chalk it up to what it is, look at positives and negatives, learn from the mistakes, and take it out on Northeast division rival Maple Leafs on Thursday night. All you have to do is look at the lopsided penalties called, 17 to 8 in favor of the Montreal-esque Carolina Hurricanes, to know the story of this game.
Positives? Fair question, and not super easy to find if you just read the box score. The goal by Peverley is a positive, as he continues to be one of the better forwards 5 games in(and $3million richer). The fact that it was a PP tally just sweetens the pie. The PP is still not producing points, but there is a lot more movement. I like the adjustment the wings have made where they are curling around the faceoff dots and are either looking for the backdoor cross pass or putting it on net. They are passing back to the blue line much less once the puck gets deep in the zone, which is great to see. The guys without the puck need to do a bit more moving though. Teams are being allowed to stay in the box formation with sticks in passing lanes making cross ice passes hard. Some more moving around would be great to open up the ice a bit more. The B’s also need to have more bodies in front of the net screening. We saw flashes of it last night, but not consistently enough. Corvo is still shooting a lot of good tip opportunity pucks, as well as Big Z. Ference shot 4 or 5 pucks directly into shin pads last night, causing the puck to die or exit the offensive zone, and I noticed Boychuk do it a few times over the last couple games as well. When the defensemen do not have an open shooting lane, they need to cycle the puck to the boards and let the forwards work the play.
I think the biggest positive may be what hurt them most last night. Emotion. There is no arguing that the Bruins took some very undisciplined penalties. Marchand went out of his way to stir the pot, and though I thought it was crazy for him to get a misconduct, he definitely earned extra attention. You could tell by the look on Lucic’s face he was getting kicked out of that game. There was no stopping that, and you know what, I loved it. I loved Z standing up for Horton, I loved Horton standing up for Looch, I loved Chris Kelly dropping Sutter, and I loved Rask skating down the other end of the ice to make sure Cam Ward knew he had a dance partner if he really wanted to go. I loved it, and not the love the donnybrook crazed “hockey fans” who do not know or appreciate the technicality of the game love it. I loved it because this team looked mad. They looked frustrated, embarrassed, fed up, and ready to steam roll. Is this the Dallas game from 2009? Is it the Dallas or Montreal game from 2010? I do not know. I’ll tell you what I do know though. This team is the hardest team to play against when they are committed to physicality. When they take the ice and Shawn Thornton is barking down the other end, when all five guys grab a partner and say welcome to the Garden, our house, that’s when they are best. Ask Montreal, Philadelphia, and Tampa Bay. Ask Vancouver. This team needs a wake up call, and they need to realize if they do not bring their A game they will continue to be embarrassed, they will continue to be known as one and dones. Here’s to the boys taking this to heart, taking some pride in their games. Here’s to playing angry and to playing with the edge that brought us our first Stanley Cup in 39 years. Do you really want to play the big bad bruins when they are an angry and crushing team? Thursday night we will get to ask Toronto.
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