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Photo courtesy of Flickr - Dinur
The Bruins are seriously making me question whether or not they are a good hockey team.
Saturday night’s botched effort in Pittsburgh really highlighted the Boston’s shortcomings this season. It also made me vomit in my mouth a bit, but we won’t talk about that right now.
Just how good are these Bruins? It’s still difficult to decipher, especially when last season at this time, the Bruins were beginning their best month in years. We knew then that this Boston squad was going places, we even had an idea that this could be the best team in the Eastern Conference going into the postseason. And they were. Now? Who knows. The win, loss, win, loss roller coaster isn’t getting them anywhere, and the “at least we got a point” excuse in overtime or shootout losses won’t be applicable come playoff time. Saturday night’s 6-5 loss against the Pittsburgh Penguins was no doubt the team’s most frustrating game so far this season. The difference makers? A broken stick and a matter of 8 seconds.
Allow me to present my version of Saturday night’s game; a truncated version of my thoughts and opinions from the third period on. A play-by-play of sorts.
I was out for most of the game, but was able to listen to the majority of the final 20 minutes in my car on the ride home. I listened as Byron Bitz drew a double-minor high sticking call from Matt Cooke and continued to listen as that 5-on-4 turned into a 5-on-3 with the Pens’ best player, Sidney Crosby, going to the box. I fist pumped and drummed on my wheel when David Krejci scored, tying the game at four goals apiece. I frightened my girlfriend with said fist pump and my outburst of “YES, KREJCI!” driving in the rain. I believe it was at that time when we had to lower the volume. Something about my sanity and stress level mixed with the rain on the highway. Anyway…
I made it back into the driveway just as Marco Sturm tipped in a Zdeno Chara slapper from the point. I walked upstairs, turned on the television, turned up the volume, and for whatever reason, it all went downhill from there.
Here’s the thing, I wasn’t shocked that Pittsburgh came back to tie the game with .4 seconds left in the game. In fact, I think I almost expected it to happen. Flashbacks of last season’s St. Louis Blues game came into focus. You remember the one.
The whole element of surprise for me was for Boston to actually win this game, but that didn’t happen.
Once overtime hit, I made a comment over the phone to both my dad and little brother who were watching one state over, that the game was already lost. It didn’t take long for Pascal Dupuis to validate my statement.
So who’s to blame? Steve Begin for not skating the extra three strides to avoid icing or Daniel Paille for a misguided shot which missed an empty net? Once Patrice Bergeron’s composite stick snapped and Crosby, Evegni Malkin and Bill Guerin went down into the Bruins’ zone on a 3-on-2, it was pretty evident that the game was heading into overtime. Come overtime, it became clear that Pittsburgh had the momentum and the Bruins would be walking home with “the point.” Heartbreaking, yes, especially since the Bruins were beginning to regain some of their swagger that was so apparent last season.
The overtime goal was the icing on the cake for me. Miscommunication, says Tim Thomas, was behind his misguided puck clear into the hands of Dupuis. Instead, Thomas tripped himself up on the netting after not looking to see that there was no d-men covering the front of the net. It’s one thing for Thomas to continue to have these highlight reel saves but unfortunately, those don’t always win hockey games for the Bruins. They certainly didn’t last night.
Saturday night’s contest was the toughest loss of the year for the Bruins, that’s a fact. What could have boosted their record to 9-7-3 instead notched them down to 8-7-4. The overtime period never was a friend of Boston’s, why would this time be any different?
So how did I spend the rest of the evening? Easy. I threw on my iPod and listened to depressing John Mayer songs. The following night, I watched the Patriots lose in the final seconds to the Colts because of a few mind-boggling plays. In fact, it was almost just as bad as the Bruins’ loss. Enter again, John Mayer.
Rinse, lather and repeat. This has got to stop.
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