ECSF Game 5: Montreal Canadiens at Boston Bruins. BEST OF THREE!

SERIES TIED 2-2

It took Matt Fraser busting his NHL playoff cherry for the Bruins to escape the bleu blanc et rouge hellhole that is Montreal with this series tied and I am a-okay with that. Sometimes you need to be good and sometimes you just need to be lucky. On Thursday the Bruins were a little more lucky than good and like I said earlier, I’m a-okay with that. Sometimes you have to be in the right place at the right time.

The scary thing?

Boston hasn’t even really played their best 60 minutes of hockey yet.

Last night was probably the closest they’ve been. Now, I may need to get this out of the way, but I only listened to the game on the radio. I don’t get NBC Sports Network at home because I don’t want to pay for channels I’ll watch two out of twelve months. I’m cheap.

So instead I enjoy listening to Dave Goucher and Bob Beers call a hockey game. It’s better than having the auditory abortion that his NBC Sports Network. But as I was saying it sounded like the Bruins more or less dominated 40 minutes of hockey before the Canadiens took over in the third period.

Think about if Boston can actually put together a 60 minute performance that consists of what they do best. Most of the time they try to be “Montreal Jr.” and outskate the Canadiens. They try to be extra fancy with the passes, like a fourth extra pass is going to fucking give them two goals on one shot. Think about what Boston can do to their opposition if they just start playing their heads.

There were flashes of it on Thursday.

Carl Söderberg rang so many posts people thought a choir was lining up to sing Jingle Bells.

Sometimes you need to be lucky instead of being good. 

My hope is that Fraser can finally fill in the void that is that third line winger spot. Even with Chris Kelly manning that black hole, he was never a finisher. Dan Paille isn’t a finisher. Justin Florek isn’t a finisher. Jordan Caron isn’t fit to be a fluffer let a lone be a finisher. Fraser has the ability to add a scoring dimension not seen on that third line since Michael Ryder was floating through town.

You could see how happy Carl Söderberg was when Matt Fraser scored that goal. He looked up to Thor or Valhalla or whatever he has and more than likely said thanks as a tear rolled down his perfect Swedish cheeks.

God knows that Loui Eriksson isn’t the finisher Carl Söderberg was looking for. Loui Eriksson couldn’t fucking finish the maze on the back of a Kix cereal box. Matt Fraser is the type of player that Carl Söderberg needs to play with and last night showed it.

Which leads me to another thing:

David Krejci is not injured right now, David Krejci is slumping.

This has led many people to believe that Krejci is somehow injured. That although we never really saw anything in play that would tell us he’s injured, people believe he’s injured. Fans and media said the same thing about Crosby because he went so long without a goal. Maybe David Krejci is just playing some shitty fucking hockey right now and it’s why his line – a line that finished with 55 goals scored together in the NHL (best in the league, by the way) – looks so pedestrian.

Suddenly Sidney Crosby scored and those questions about injuries are gone – vanished like the Buffalo Sabres playoff hopes in November – and Pittsburgh is eating all the fucking chicken in New York.

In the end all this rambling means is that Boston still hasn’t lived up to their potential yet and that could be disastrous for the Canadiens when it does – especially if that huge fucking lump named Douglas Murray is still in the line-up. Good god he’s a complete waste of a roster spot.

I’m not sure if you guys are corsi people or not, but I’ll break it down into the simplest terms possible:

When Douglas Murray was on the ice, the Montreal Canadiens attempt four shots.
When Douglas Murray was on the ice, the Boston Bruins attempted twenty shots.

Fucking twenty.

Why?

Because Douglas Murray is a pylon used to hit people. In fact, who was on the ice when the Bruins third line was skating circles and jamming the game winning goal passed Carey Price?

Big ole vending machine Murray.

I hope Therrien keeps playing him. I wonder how much USD I would have to pay him to keep playing Douglas Murray in meaningful hockey game. Surely the fourteen dollars we have in the DOY bank account would suffice because it’s like a thousand when converted to Canadian monies.

I’m just joshing Canada, you’re okay.

Media

Okay so I’ve read some people are having issues with this. Here’s easy step by step instructions.

1. Download VLC
2. Click the bear. Feels good doesn’t it baby? Oh yeah.
3. Click on any X’s you see and your stream will load. Don’t click on any ads, just the X’s.
4. Enjoy.

Click the image and bookmark the page.

Puck Drop: 7:00pm EST
TV: NBCSN, CBC, RDS
Radio: 98.5 The Sports Hub

Projected Lines

Milan Lucic – David Krejci – Jarome Iginla
Brad Marchand – Patrice Bergeron – Reilly Smith
Matt Fraser – Carl Söderberg – Loui Eriksson
Shawn Thornton – Greg Campbell – Dan Paille

Zdeno Chara – Dougie Hamilton
Matt Bartkowski – Johnny Boychuk
Torey Krug – Kevan Miller

Tuukka Rask

Know the Enemy

Gameday Image/Video