Finally showing up...

I'll admit it. It's been a little depressing watching the last couple Bruins games down in North Carolina. Not only has the home ice advantage been prevalent in the relevant PIMs, but Boston has been unable to kill penalties in anyway whatsoever. I think their 5-on-5 was getting a lot better in games 3 (which they could have easily won, taking it to OT) and 4 (which was a lot closer than the score would let one, tied 1-1 going into the third). Still, this wasn't the Bruins we were used to seeing.

Until Game 5...

First of all, I just want to state the fact that every playoff game I've been to this year the Bruins have won (side note: the Yankees have won every game I've been to). Unfortunately for the B's, should this go to a Game 7, I will be on the left coast and unable to attend. If they wanted to send me a jet and hook me up with a suite for Thursday night's showing, I wouldn't object. But I digress...

The most shocking thing for me last night was looking up on the scoreboards at the Garden and seeing the shot totals. I'm not saying that the final score of 4-0 wasn't impressive, because it was. We saw offensive performance from proven goal scorers Recchi and Kessel. I'm also not saying that Timmy's performance in net was lacking, because it wasn't. He had to work for all 19 of his saves. However, when I looked up on the board and saw shot totals in the area of Bos 8 - Car 0 and Bos 15 - Car 2, I had to turn to the people next to me to make sure I wasn't reading it wrong.

In a big change from the last few games, Boston dominated its PK. They were pushing the action even down a player, giving up few (if any, I honestly didn't keep track) shots for Carolina's PP. It was great to see such an improvement in this and really all areas of the Bruins' game. Great Game 5 win. Hopefully, this momentum will carry over into games 6 and 7.

A to be continued is left for this post as I'm awaiting Colin Campbell's decision about how many games to suspend Scott Walker for for sucker punching Aaron Ward at the end of the game and possible breaking the left orbital bone in his face (see: decided outcome, message sending, and injured player).