Man, who are these Boston Bruins? We've gone from the brink of elimination to up 3-0 in the semifinals and playing great despite playing two teams out there – the New York Rangers and the NHL referees. Seriously, this was possibly one of the worst officiated games I've ever watched and that's saying something given the current state of officiating.
This game had the narrative pretty much written. It was your classic "Bruins dominate everywhere but the scorebord" game because Henrik Lundqvist was sensational tonight. I wrote in the preview that Lundqvist was going to steal games and he almost did tonight.
Almost.
There's something wrong with him and the Bruins can use it to their advantage (and they have). Outside of a good first period for New York, Boston dictated play. They put more shots on goal in the second period (14) than New York did in the second and third period combined (13).
Then there was the amount of blood that was left on the ice. How many guys got cut in that game? It was like a god damn 1985 Royal Rumble. All we needed was Shawn Thornton to get DDT'd by Mike Del Zotto and then pull a smaller razor out of his gloves and blade. It would have just made everything perfect.
Despite the win, it wasn't a great game by Boston. You can put a lot of that on Lundqvist, who again was good tonight. Jesus, I'm writing a Bruins recap and all I can do is write about Lundqvist. I'm like Pierre McGuire only I'm not flossing my teeth with Swedish pubes.
Well let's get to the good stuff.
After the jump, the rest of the preview…
– Johnny Boychuk is a Destroyer of Worlds among men. He's having a massive semifinals series right now. Everything happened because of the Merlot Line, which we will talk about shortly – but Boychuk's shot had eyes. Sometimes when you're feeling it, you're feeling it and this guy is feeling it.
– Jesus Christ – how good is the fucking Merlot Line? They were buzzing tonight and were the best line on the team. They're easily outplaying the Peverley/Kelly/Seguin line. In fact, I've seen more movement in a pudle of hippo cum than I have out of the "third line".
That Paille goal, by the way, some of the weirdest puck movement I've ever seen. There was a lot of English on that bad boy and Paille's stick just sort of found it's way there. Maybe that's a testament to how good (and underrated) Paille has been during his tenure in Boston.
I like it when guys like Greg Campbell and Dan Paille are getting more TOI then Chris Kelly and Rich Peverley. They played out of their mind tonight.
– Rask was solid again tonight. He doesn't have to be the Tuukka Rask from the Toronto Maple Leafs series where he's facing 40+ shots. All Rask needs to do is (cliche incoming) play his game and the Bruins will win games. He made some unreal saves tonight that kept this team in it when the defense broke down.
Rask is showing that he actually did deserve a Vezina nod, but fuck it, I'm sure he'll take a trip the Eastern Conference Finals instead.
– Bruins PK was great tonight, but that's not saying much because the Rangers power play is god awful. Either way, the Rangers got power plays and Boston killed them. Sun rise, sun set.
– You know what's a positive? People telling Boston Media to shut the fuck up. I'm sure you all remember the infamous Jimmy Murphy tweet right? If not, here it is:
Seriously – this is real. Not doctored up or Photoshopped. We're not good enough to do shit like that, haha. So Murphy apologzied but is still getting shit for this and rightly so. Then this happened:
Seriously – read that again. Murphy thinks he's right that Chara shouldn't be the captain of the Bruins. I guess having a Norris Trophy winner who can play 30+ minutes when needed and not blink an eye isn't captain material.
Or maybe it's because Chara won't talk to the media. (ding!)
I'm not one to call people out because if you want to act like a jackass go right ahead, but Murphy is on a whole different level of idiocy lately. How does this guy have press passes (answer: he works for ESPN).
– The lack of penalties against the New York Rangers tonight was a fucking joke. There were multiple times when the Rangers did something that could be called a penalty (Callahan hit on Chara that cut him open, clear Nash hook on Chara, Rich Peverley getting held, Tyler Seguin taking a high stick to the face).
There's 5:44 left in the third period and whoever is barking for NBC openly states that the Bruins havent even had a power play chance during this game. It's pathetic and the NHL should be ashamed to have such horrible decisions being made on the ice.
– WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU, TYLER?!
But seriously, what the fuck. Also Kelly and Peverley have been garbage this playoffs. These guys blow.
– Jaromir Jagr is so snakebitten that I don't even have a clever one liner to throw out there. He's past pissed venom. He's like…like…I don't even know. I have no fucking idea. All I know is that this poor bastard is giving it everything he has, getting unreal looks and can't bury the puck.
Still playing better than Seguin.
– The Bruins PP. Oh wait – they didn't get one. I think I'm just used to it at this point.
– Why is Lundqvist called "King Henrik" when he hasn't won anything?
– Where you at TyTy?
– How is Tim Thomas feeling right now?
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