Prologue:
Here we go again. The Bruins were in the Eastern Conference Semifinals for the second year in a row and they were once again up 3-0 against Philadelphia Flyers for the second year in a row.
There are reminders aplenty of the historic collapse that the Bruins experienced at the hands of the Flyers, but virtually every time it was mentioned, there wasn’t any mention of the contrasting differences between the teams that were playing last postseason to the teams that are playing now.
Last year’s Bruins had Marc Savard and Milan Lucic not 100 percent, David Krejci out with a dislocated wrist in Game 3, Marco Sturm out with a torn ACL and MCL in Game 1, Dennis Seidenburg out with a late regular season laceration to his forearm that required surgery and Tim Thomas fighting through a hip impingement that ended up requiring surgery in the offseason.
So that was the best setup man, the most electric and physical player, the team’s top scorer (in the worst offensive roster that regular season), one of the the best all around centers, the best shot blocker in the league and a former Vezina Trophy winner that were out. Anybody see a pattern to the loss?
Flyers coach Peter Laviolette didn’t want to let this go and for good reason. He is the bench boss and if he looks downtrodden, then the team can follow suit. Even with professional players, they look to their leaders for a boost and with the experience of Laviolette, especially seeing he has seen his respective teams he has coached come back from improbable odds.
The Bruins stayed the course and it seemed that if the constant mention of last year’s disappointment was getting to them, I would think it was in a positive way.
They were playing hard and fast on the Flyers and, with the exception of Game 2, the Bruins seem to be the ones at the controls. Even in Game 2, when the Flyers were up 2-0 very quickly, it didn’t seem to rattle this roster and they ended up getting the win in overtime.
The Flyers were also facing a very healthy squad this year.
The injuries that the Flyers have experienced were not helping them. Chris Pronger, the defensive mainstay of this team has been hurt and has not played since Game 1. He played for 19:45 but came up zeros on the stat sheet except a minus-3.
Say what you will, but the past is the past and this is now. Flyers faithful were saying do not count the Flyers out and I would agree. From what I see so far, the Bruins were not counting them out, fully knowing that the Flyers would try to come out full bore to force another game back at the Wells Fargo Center.
Quite frankly, unless the Bruins have serious injuries, or are completely lax on their defense, I didn’t see the Flyers fighting their way out of this series.
Now that Boston is moving on, let’s see the recap on how that materialized.
The Game
Sergei Bobrovsky was between the pipes for the Flyers and Jody Shelly is dressed up to take the place of Nikolay Zherdev to add some grit to the lines.
First Period
As expected, the Flyers got chippy from the opening faceoff and it cost them.
Daniel Carcillo crosschecked Greg Campbell and he paid for it. Milan Lucic finally got the gorilla off his back as he was left all alone in front of Bobrovsky and buried it low left side. The power play goal was the second of the playoffs and the second in as many games.
The Flyers were trying to get under Thomas’ skin as they are bumping him in the crease. Scott Hartnell bumped Thomas and Chara had enough. Hartnell took a swing at Chara and Chara took exception to that. He swung back and was ready to lay a beatdown but Hartnell wisely turtled. Chara got four for roughing while Hartnell got two, giving the Flyers the power play.
Braydon Coburn was nearly the third man in on Chara as the referees where holding him back, but was not called.
After the first period, the Bruins with the 1-0 lead but in the sin bin for the beginning of the second frame and Chara being the top D-man for the PK not in the play.
Second Period
The Bruins killed off the penalty and there was lots of back and forth that really didn’t give the goalies much to stop.
For about two minutes the Bruins were all over the Flyers, seeming to continue that dominance but could not cash in on a couple of scrums at the net.
Mike Richards got a turnover during a four-on-four situation and was racing up the ice with Chris Versteeg and Versteeg put it top shelf to tie the game at one apiece.
Third Period
Patrice Bergeron got hit by Claude Giroux and he went immediately to the dressing room.
Johnny Boychuk ripped a shot right from the face off win to the net and it just clipped Hartnell’s stick to go up and in over Bobrovsky’s left shoulder. Bruins lead 2-0.
Matt Carle made a poor clearing attempt that Nathan Horton stopped just outside the Flyers’ zone and slipped a pass to Lucic who had a clear path to the net and he five-holed Bobrovsky to put the Bruins up 3-1 with just under five minutes left to play.
The Flyers’ net emptied at about the 2:30 left of the game and shortly afterwards, Brad Marchand puts the puck in the net to put the game out of reach.
The Flyers were still fighting to the last minute so the Bruins decided to end their fight by scoring another empty net goal. Greg Campbell threw it at the net, but Daniel Paille got the credit as it went off his stick.
Final Score: 5-1.
The Good
The Bruins had some lapse of undisciplined play, but for the most part played their game, and so did the Flyers.
Lucic finally get on the score sheet in the G column and did it twice.
The Bad
Carcillo’s choice in penalties. One of them cost them the game and a shot at the Cup.
The mountain was just too high for the Flyers to climb with the injuries and the Bruins had the team to complete the job
The Ugly
Bergeron was hit but did not return. No report as of yet on his condition. He would be an important cog missed in this team.
Bob Cole will now become a Tampa Bay fan in the Eastern Conference Finals.
My Take
The demons that everybody stated that the Bruins had over “The Collapse” has now been exorcised. The Bruins move on to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since 1992 and this team looks good to take it to Tampa Bay.
Bruins fans can only hope that Patrice Bergeron is okay and that his time in the dressing room is for precautionary purposes.
This is a great day for the Bruins and they have surpassed a lot of skeptics expectations, but there is more hockey to play.
Enjoy this victory, Boston Bruins. Then get back to work. To win Lord Stanley’s Mug, you first need to win the Prince of Wales Trophy, and to do that you need to take four games from the Tampa Bay Lightning.
This is Cory Ducey saying “Hit Hard, But Keep It Clean.”
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