The Boston Bruins are developing a good bad habit. The past three playoff wins for Boston have come in overtime, most recently a 3-2 win in Game 1 over the New York Rangers. They’re learning how to win games when they matter most, even if extra hockey is required. With a next goal wins mentality, the Bruins are showing that they can play their best hockey when their backs are against the wall. Closing out a game with a win in 60 minutes hasn’t happened since Game 3 against the Toronto Maple Leafs, but there’s no denying the momentum that’s on the Bruins side right now.

(Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports)

On Thursday night, fans were treated to 60+ minutes of hockey between two teams days removed from a grueling seven-game series in the first round of the 2013 NHL postseason. For the first 40 minutes of Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals, it was pretty obvious that both the Boston Bruins and New York Rangers were feeling the effects of their Game 7s played on Monday night. It was sloppy hockey from two tired teams in a game that seemed to be headed for irrelevancy, surely not to be remembered in playoff folklore for it’s thrilling moments and edge-of-your seat exciting.

Things changed in the third period, but hey, that’s nothing new–especially for the Bruins.

Credit the Rangers for coming out on fire to start the third period. It only took 14 seconds for Derek Stepan to break the tie and put the Rangers on top 2-1 early in the third period. Capitalizing on the same momentum they used to close out the second period, when Ryan McDonagh ripped a snap shot from the point past Tuukka Rask to put New York on the score sheet with less than two seconds remaining, the Rangers kept pushing.

The Bruins pushed back.

It started with a power play goal from Torey Krug, the recent Providence call-up to the injury-depleted Boston blue line, that tied the game for the Bruins. Krug fired a shot from the point after a heads-up hockey pass from counterpart Dougie Hamilton sailed across the top of the offensive zone.

“I’ve said before that my main goal is to come in here and try to help the team win,” said Krug after the game. “I was fortunate enough to do that.”

In overtime, it was all Bruins. At one point after the Bruins’ power play in extra time, it became evident that the Bruins were going to pull through and win the game. Maybe it had to do with the 16-5 shot advantage the Bruins had, or the immense amount of pressure they were putting on Henrik Lundqvist. Eventually, you just knew that the Bruins would break open the game for the win.

It made perfect sense that the cast of characters responsible for the game-winning goal were the most important Bruins’ on the ice during Game 1. Zdeno Chara, after notching the first goal of the game and already logging an insane 38 minutes of ice-time, poked an errant pass away from Derick Brassard in the Bruins zone, leading to a two-on-one where Patrice Bergeron fed a perfect pass onto the stick of Brad Marchand for the goal.

It was poetic that the hero from Game 7 passed the clutch crown to Marchand, who had already played his best game of the postseason, to become the hero in Game 1.

“It’s kind of a blur,” said Marchand after the game. “From the second it goes in to see everybody jump on the ice and surround you, it’s a bit of a blur. Obviously, a huge adrenaline rush and very exciting.”

The Bruins know how to play when it matters most and have shown that they can deliver positive results when tested. While consistency always remain a question, it’s easy to understand that this team is playing with as much heart and determination as they have all season.

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Author information

Mike Miccoli

Mike Miccoli has covered the Boston Bruins for three years with TheHockeyWriters.com and is a credentialed member of the media for all Bruins' home games. As a former player, coach and official, Miccoli has been around the game of hockey since the age of three. Along with his work on THW, Miccoli has also been published in the New England Hockey Journal, Improper Bostonian magazine and on BostInnovation.com. You can follow him at twitter.com/mikemiccoli.

This article was originally published at: The Hockey Writers.

Here’s a secret no one tells you: columns and articles are written ahead of time. Sometimes, way ahead of time.

Maybe not full pieces, but the skeletons of what will be the final product are sketched out. It might be a bunch of quick notes jotted down on a piece of paper or bulletpoints listed in a Word document that need to be expanded on and constructed but still, there’s a story in there.

(Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports)

When the Boston Bruins were down 4-1 late in the third period of Game 7 against the Toronto Maple Leafs, my column was finished. If I’m being honest, my column was finished Sunday night, a few hours after the conclusion of Game 6, with the exception of some quotes that I would pepper in from players and coaches.

As far as I was concerned, the Bruins were done. Toast. Finished. Maybe even looking ahead to the rest of the week’s weather forecast to plan out their rounds of golf. With 11 minutes left in the third period of Game 7, the Maple Leafs had a three-goal lead and were on their way to erasing a 3-1 series deficit to beat the Bruins and advance to the second round of the playoffs.

My column addressed all of this. You know, how the Bruins gave up and how they never could really put it together all season. There might have been a line about Nathan Horton’s last game in a Bruins’ uniform and one about Claude Julien being on the hot seat.

I thought that the Bruins wrote themselves off. Turns out, I had no idea what I was about to witness.

When Horton scored to pull the Bruins within two, it was a sign that there was still life left. Maybe the 2013 Bruins didn’t want to die yet. Maybe they did have a heartbeat left. A comeback would be nearly impossible, but at the very least, the Bruins were going to go out at least trying to make it a series.

But it couldn’t be, right? The Bruins were rotating five defensemen, two of which were Matt Bartkowski (who played his best game in a Boston uniform) and Dougie Hamilton (who may have played his worst) with Dennis Seidenberg out with an injury. Zdeno Chara had already logged close to 30 minutes and the Maple Leafs weren’t giving up either.

The Bruins were down two with less than two minutes left and Tuukka Rask out of his net when Milan Lucic, positioned perfectly in front of James Reimer buried a rebound home to cut the deficit to one. Following a timeout, perhaps Julien’s most timely of the season since it wasn’t used to regroup the Bruins after going down 4-1, the same six skaters took to the ice and 31 seconds later, Patrice Bergeron fired off a shot past a screened Reimer.

Tie game.

This is when it happened. If you were at the TD Garden, you felt it. I can try to explain it, but I’ll never capture it in words.

(Greg M. Cooper-US PRESSWIRE)

It was electric. A sea of yellow towels raised and waved in unison with every fan who decided to stick around on their feet. The upper deck on Level 9 where the press seating is located was vibrating. I felt it and if you were there, you did too. It was the loudest the TD Garden had been all season. Right then, you knew something special was happening. Those around me did too.

When you’re a writer covering a team, you ditch allegiances best that you can. You can root for certain players or maybe certain angles in order to fit with deadlines but for the most part, you’re on the clock. What doesn’t ever go away is the love of the game. There’s this rush you feel at puck drop that lasts all of the way until the final horn or if you’re lucky, the game-winning goal in Game 7 of the playoffs. It’s one of the reasons why hockey is the greatest sport in the world.

Maybe that’s what I felt. Maybe everyone around me felt it too. This was playoff hockey at its finest, filled with robust storylines and a dramatic plot twist. This was like nothing I have ever covered. A lifeless Bruins team rose from mediocrity to play their hearts out for one another and for themselves. They battled back from a three-goal deficit with 10 minutes to play in the game to force an overtime. The confidence and energy of the players on the ice were as high as any time in the playoffs thus far. The Bruins were winning Game 7.

(Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports)

And they did, after all. Bergeron capitalized on a rebound that Reimer couldn’t control and like that, the Bruins had four unanswered goals and a ticket to the second round. Like nothing anyone could ever predict, but yet another validation as to why playoff hockey is one of the most exciting times in sports. That’s why we do it.

Every hockey player dreams of scoring the game winning goal in Game 7 of the playoffs. Every hockey writer dreams of covering it. And if anyone disagrees, they’re lying to you.

It was 30 minutes in real-time between Lucic’s goal and Bergeron’s game-winner. One half-hour to prove why hockey can be so unjust. Boston moves on after playing a lightning-fast, tough 10-minutes of hockey while Toronto goes home after taking their foot off of the pedal. The Bruins probably shouldn’t be here but if this is the effort they put forth when tested, maybe they should be.

A Game 7 win could very well be the difference for the make-up of this team going forward. Maybe they do still have some magic left. Whatever happened at the TD Garden in Game 7 showed that. The challenge now becomes maintaining it.

I’m not sure if the Bruins will continue to win. I’m not even sure if they’ll get past the New York Rangers in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. I am sure that the team extended their lives, regained a ton of momentum, and will be together for another run for just a little while longer.

In that old column I wrote, I said that the Bruins scripted the end of their own season long before the playoffs started. In reality, they wrote a new chapter.

And I wrote a new column.

Follow Mike on Twitter for more Bruins updates, news and commentary.

Author information

Mike Miccoli

Mike Miccoli has covered the Boston Bruins for three years with TheHockeyWriters.com and is a credentialed member of the media for all Bruins' home games. As a former player, coach and official, Miccoli has been around the game of hockey since the age of three. Along with his work on THW, Miccoli has also been published in the New England Hockey Journal, Improper Bostonian magazine and on BostInnovation.com. You can follow him at twitter.com/mikemiccoli.

This article was originally published at: The Hockey Writers.

James van Riemsdyk fights for position in front of Boston’s Tuukka Rask(Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports)

The Boston Bruins can’t play like they did in Game 5 because if they do, there’s going to be a Game 7 and if there’s a Game 7–well, that’s not good.

The team has this problem with complacency. They start out strong, get ahead of their opponents, and then they stop. Everything stops, actually. They stop skating, stop hitting, and stop any type of effort that helps them to maintain a lead. It has been apparent in games this season and now the Bruins are doing it in the playoffs.

So here we go again.

The Bruins squandered the chance to close out the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals against the Maple Leafs in Game 5, losing 2-1. Now, the series goes back to Toronto for Game 6 on Sunday, momentum suddenly shifting to the Maple Leafs’ corner.

Of course, the Bruins need to win one game before the Maple Leafs win two. Odds are still in Boston’s favor, but Game 6, much like Game 5 should have been, is now an absolute must-win for the Bruins.

Bergeron line must contribute

The line of Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron, and Tyler Seguin has to be the spark that gets the team going. Boston’s best line throughout the regular season has been ice cold in the postseason, combining for a total of one goal (Bergeron) and two assists (Marchand) between the three of them. Seguin has gone five games without a point.

It’s almost as if the trio is trying too hard. Even though he leads the Bruins with 24 shots, Seguin has been invisible in the postseason; a non-factor when he could be the sole difference between a win and a loss for Boston. While Bergeron has been consistent with his two-way play and effort, the line just looks out-of-sync, almost lost at times when on the ice. Since David Krejci and his linemates have taken over the bulk of the offensive production, it’s almost as if the Bergeron line sat back, knowing that the pressure is off of them to contribute.

They became complacent.

The third line of Chris Kelly, Rich Peverley and Jaromir Jagr looked better in Game 5, cycling the puck and keeping the pressure going in the offensive zone but still lacked offensive prowess. It was telling, however, that after Chara’s goal, Kelly’s line was rolled out, rather than the Bergeron line, to keep Boston’s momentum’s going. The Bruins now-second line needs to start contributing in order to be a vital part of the team’s success. When Boston needs them most in Game 6, they need to be the ones to deliver.

Defense must remain composed

When acquired, it was projected that Wade Redden would only be used for depth purposes. Turns out, he’s pretty solid defensively and can contribute on the power play. So when the news broke that veteran defenseman was ruled out for Game 5 and that Matt Bartkowski would be taking his place, it didn’t seem like it would be that big of a deal.

Who knew that Redden was so important to the Bruins blue line?

It’s not that Bartkowski played poorly, but his six minutes of ice time hardly made a difference. It’s more that the shuffling up of defensive pairings when the core six of Chara, Redden, Dennis Seidenberg, Johnny Boychuk, Andrew Ference and Adam McQuaid is not intact impacts the team. Ference replaced Redden on the second power play unit and mishandled a puck allowing Tyler Bozak to score a shorthanded goal on the breakaway. Later, Boychuk misfired what should have been a clean breakout pass to Nathan Horton but rather ended up on Clarke MacArthur’s stick and past Tuukka Rask.

The defense needs to tighten itself up and find ways to shut down the speedy Toronto offense. The cracks in their game have been more visible than often and the Maple Leafs are finding ways to capitalize on the Bruins’ mistakes. Led by the top pairing of Chara and Seidenberg, the B’s have to be almost flawless in Toronto.

Stay out of their own heads

Boston won both games played at the Air Canada Centre this past week, proving that the hostile Toronto environment won’t be too much for them to handle. Excuses are out the window and Julien’s team must now put aside any blunders made in Game 5 and focus on the task at hand—eliminating the Maple Leafs in Toronto in Game 6.

Moreover, the Bruins have been the better team most of the time during the series. The Bruins took over Game 5 in the last ten minutes of the third period, completely rendering the Maple Leafs offense useless. The Bruins can’t let the Maple Leafs swing the momentum in their direction and need to go back to playing the full-60 if they’re going to be successful.

Game 6 can’t be like Game 5 because it could mean that Game 7 is the Bruins’ last of the season.

Follow Mike on Twitter for more Bruins updates, news, and commentary

Author information

Mike Miccoli

Mike Miccoli has covered the Boston Bruins for three years with TheHockeyWriters.com and is a credentialed member of the media for all Bruins' home games. As a former player, coach and official, Miccoli has been around the game of hockey since the age of three. Along with his work on THW, Miccoli has also been published in the New England Hockey Journal, Improper Bostonian magazine and on BostInnovation.com. You can follow him at twitter.com/mikemiccoli.

This article was originally published at: The Hockey Writers.

Photo courtesy of Flickr/Slidingsideways (CC)

In Game 2 on Saturday night, the story wasn’t that the Bruins couldn’t keep up the momentum, it was that the Maple Leafs played on a higher level, looking like a different team than Game 1. As for the Bruins? Well, they just weren’t good enough. Make no mistake about it though, the Bruins shouldn’t panic for Game 3 in Toronto.

Game 2 was strange for the Bruins in the sense that they didn’t play a bad game. I’d even argue that they weren’t outplayed for the majority of the game, either. They were beaten by a Toronto team that came out hungry and was able to capitalize on their chances. The Maple Leafs wanted to make a statement after their poor performance in Game 1 on Wednesday and they were able to do that by outhitting Boston 44-35 and taking advantage of loose pucks and rebounds that the Bruins’ defensemen left in front of the net.

You can blame it on the mismatched pairs of defensemen that started with Andrew Ference missing a game on the count of his one-game suspension after an elbow to the head of Mikhail Grabovski. Usual shut-down defenseman Dennis Seidenberg was a team-worst -3 and played one of his worst games of hockey all season. Paired with Johnny Boychuk, Seidenberg got caught up behind the play and flat-out beat by Matt Frattin who set up Joffrey Lupul’s second goal, as well as James van Riemsdyk who put the final nail in the Bruins’ Game 2 coffin.

But still, it’s not time to panic. The Bruins still had plenty of positives to takeaway from the game, including the performance of Tyler Seguin who was all over the ice with eight shots on goal and a total of four hits. They were still keeping the pressure on Toronto and connecting with passes in the offensive zone.

The problem was that the Bruins couldn’t capitalize. The line of Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron and Seguin had plenty of chances but just couldn’t get it past James Reimer, who made 39 saves in Game 2. Jaromir Jagr looked like he was playing by himself, instead of with linemates Chris Kelly and Rich Peverley, for the majority of the game. The new-look B’s defense was out-of-place all because of Ference sitting out a game, forcing Claude Julien to break up his top shutdown pair of Seidenberg and Zdeno Chara.

All of these problems are temporary and quite fixable. After the game on Saturday, the Bruins knew what they were doing wrong and how they have to fix the problems. The Bruins didn’t play a bad game, but the Leafs took advantage of every possible chance they got. The Bruins did not.

In the end, that’s all that matters. The Maple Leafs won the game and evened-up the series at one apiece. In front of a home crowd at the Air Canada Center on Monday night for Game 3, the Maple Leafs will try to do something they haven’t done since April 30, 2004: win a playoff game at home.

Follow Mike on Twitter for more Bruins updates, news and commentary

Author information

Mike Miccoli

Mike Miccoli has covered the Boston Bruins for three years with TheHockeyWriters.com and is a credentialed member of the media for all Bruins' home games. As a former player, coach and official, Miccoli has been around the game of hockey since the age of three. Along with his work on THW, Miccoli has also been published in the New England Hockey Journal, Improper Bostonian magazine and on BostInnovation.com. You can follow him at twitter.com/mikemiccoli.

This article was originally published at: The Hockey Writers.

Flickr (CC)/Slidingsideways

Before the Boston Bruins and the Toronto Maple Leafs dropped the puck on their Eastern Conference Quarterfinal series, I made a prediction. “Bruins in six,” I’d tell anyone who’d ask, even going as far as hinting that the Maple Leafs had every chance to upset the B’s in the first game. I’d circle back to the fact that the Bruins had won only two of their last nine games (against an awful Tampa Bay team and a worse Florida club) and basically backed into the playoffs.

They couldn’t protect the lead. They’d often give up at points during the hockey game. Their lack of interest seemed appalling and a bit disturbing. The Bruins just weren’t playing good hockey.

Then, Wednesday night happened and a Bruins team appeared on the ice that hasn’t been seen in quite some time. They were hitting, shooting the puck, connecting their passes and bringing a whole other level of intensity that has gone missing for most of the season. They played the full-60.

So, about flipping that switch.

The Bruins 4-1 win over the Maple Leafs in Game 1 is both a blessing and a curse for Boston because now everyone knows what this team can be capable of. Any expectations that were lowered to start the series have no doubt risen with the Bruins’ win. If they can play like this every game, this series will be over quicker than it started.

The Bruins did a lot of things right on Wednesday, even after giving up the first goal of the game, a power play tally less than three minutes after puck drop. The Bruins responded by firing away shots at James Reimer and keeping the pressure consistent in the offensive zone. The physicality was there and, even down 1-0, the momentum was clearly shifting in Boston’s favor.

Players stepped up and embraced their roles. Wednesday night’s game was one of the best in some time for guys like David Krejci, Wade Redden, Johnny Boychuk and even Brad Marchand who, while not appearing on the scoresheet, clearly got into the heads of the Toronto skaters.

Tuukka Rask made “timely saves” after giving up a softie to James van Riemsdyk early in the game. The defense settled down and held the Maple Leafs to 20 shots and every Bruin, with the exception of Daniel Paille, Shawn Thornton and Adam McQuaid, registered a shot on net. And even they made their presence felt at some point during the game.

So now, no more excuses. No more talking about the grueling schedule. No more talking about how this was the longest, shortest season ever. Now, it’s just hockey and the Bruins proved in Game 1 that they can still play the game and be damn good at it. Peter Chiarelli talked to 98.5 The Sports Hub about how teams don’t just flip a switch when the playoffs come, which is true. The Bruins still need to prove that they’re a consistent team who can play to this level every game. If they can do that, they’re as tough of an opponent as anyone in the postseason. They just can’t revert back to the sloppy style of hockey that they had played over the past month or two. One game, after all, doesn’t mean everything is back to normal.

But it’s getting there.

My prediction of the Bruins winning the series in six games stays the same. The Maple Leafs will bounce back and James Reimer will steal a game for Toronto because let’s be honest, Reimer, who made 36 saves in Game 1, kept his team in the game. The difference is that now we know the Bruins have it in them. We know what they’re capable of and we know just how dangerous they can be. For now, that should be plenty to get them past Toronto in this series if they’re able to maintain the momentum and continuously play strong hockey.

Just…no more excuses, please.

Follow Mike on Twitter for more Bruins updates, news and commentary

Author information

Mike Miccoli

Mike Miccoli has covered the Boston Bruins for three years with TheHockeyWriters.com and is a credentialed member of the media for all Bruins' home games. As a former player, coach and official, Miccoli has been around the game of hockey since the age of three. Along with his work on THW, Miccoli has also been published in the New England Hockey Journal, Improper Bostonian magazine and on BostInnovation.com. You can follow him at twitter.com/mikemiccoli.

This article was originally published at: The Hockey Writers.

Brad Marchand (Greg M. Cooper-US PRESSWIRE)

I didn’t know what to expect walking into the TD Garden for the Bruins game on Saturday morning. You see, the last time I covered the Bruins at home was on Thursday, April 11–almost a lifetime ago.

Things had changed in those nine days. Boston had changed.

This past week, we’ve felt sadness, fear, pride and togetherness. Bostonians bonded together, remembering those lost or hurt and doing our best to honor their memories. We tried to return to normalcy after Marathon Monday, but we’re sent sailing back into chaos late Thursday night and into Friday. But on Saturday, we could breathe again. We dubbed first responders, members of the armed forces, local and state police and those that we lost, heroes.

We had a nation behind us. We turned to sports to take our minds off of the tragedy, if only for a few hours. The players of the games knew the importance and did their best to honor those impacted as well.

The Bruins took their warmup on Saturday sans helmets, but instead donned ball caps of the Watertown, Boston and Massachusetts State Police Departments. They wore the blue and yellow Boston Strong ribbon on their jerseys while the opposing Pittsburgh Penguins wore a “Boston 617″ patch.

I felt it.

The songs were different too. No more Pitbull or Kanye West, but rather Dropkick Murphys’ “State of Massachusetts” followed by the Mighty Mighty Bosstones’ “I Want My City Back.” The Bruins are as much of Boston’s history as the people that live and work in the city everyday. Continuing on from Wednesday, it was the Boston Bruins who were honoring the real heroes.

When I stood for the National Anthem on Saturday, I felt it. The 17,565 (or so) in attendance belted out the Anthem without any accompaniment from Rene Rancourt or Ron Poster on the organ, similarly to Wednesday night’s emotional pre-game ceremony. The “Boston Strong” video montage added in photos from Friday night’s capture of one of the suspects, complete with police officers embracing each other and Bostonians smiling with American flags held high.

I felt it. Everyone else in attendance did too.

There are some things you can’t explain to others unless they were able to experience it, too. I feel like the last two Bruins games were like that.

And here’s the thing: the Bruins lost both games. Their effort wasn’t worthy of a full-60 minute game of hockey and both the Penguins and Buffalo Sabres took advantage of that. Still, there’s something to be said for the way the team bonded together to honor the heroes around Boston over the past week.

After all, it’s just a game.

Follow Mike on Twitter for more Bruins updates, news and commentary.

Author information

Mike Miccoli

Mike Miccoli has covered the Boston Bruins for three years with TheHockeyWriters.com and is a credentialed member of the media for all Bruins' home games. As a former player, coach and official, Miccoli has been around the game of hockey since the age of three. Along with his work on THW, Miccoli has also been published in the New England Hockey Journal, Improper Bostonian magazine and on BostInnovation.com. You can follow him at twitter.com/mikemiccoli.

This article was originally published at: The Hockey Writers.