Bruins Games 1, 2 Recap

In an absolute shocker last night, I watched the Bruins, averaging 4 goals a game through the playoffs so far, get shut out by the a mediocre 'Canes team. Maybe it's because a bunch of jerk-off bandwagon fans got tickets instead of me. All I'm saying is that so far in the playoffs when I show up the Bruins win. Anyway, let's break down what the difference was between a dominating win Friday and a pathetic loss Sunday...

Physical Play: Friday night it was apparent the the Bruins had the freshest legs on the ice (probably thanks to the rest). Not only were they finishing checks and winning one-on-one battles (something that was only around for the first period Sunday), but they were consistently pestering shift after shift which gave way to Carolina mistakes and Bruins goals. Sunday was completely opposite with Carolina players taking every liberty they could to hit after the whistle, none of which was reciprocated by a sluggish Boston team. If the refs are going to allow the Carolina big men to shove Savvy/Kess/Chuck/Bergy around after the puck is frozen then Chara needs to step in around Thomas and clean house. (It got really pathetic at the end when the refs appeared to be letting every late shot go, unlike Round 1 or even the first game of this series.)

Neutral Zone: Another complete reversal of roles from Friday to Sunday came between the blue lines. Boston was really able to dominate Game 1 by always being a step ahead in the neutral zone. They read Carolina's breakouts well and capitalized while a flat footed 'Canes team got minimal penetration and even fewer quality scoring chances. Now substitute "Boston" for "Carolina" in that last sentence, and that is what you saw last night. When Boston got it into the offensive end they cycled well but the staggering of Carolina's D and confrontation in the neutral zone made Boston look especially sloppy.

Cam Ward: Ward saw something like 39 shots from the Bruins and stopped all of them. Part of this was the poor scoring chances by Boston, but I think a lot of this was Ward having the game of his life. I've seen him through the season put on these spectacular shows but the reason the 'Canes are 6th in the East is because it's not something he does every night. If he brings it again the rest of this series, though, it'll be tough for the Bruins to win another game.

That's all. I've got to get off the blog so I can buy my Game 5 tickets. I'll leave you with the quote of the night from Aaron Ward: "That's obviously a display of how not to play hockey on our end."