Boston Bruins: The Calm Before Game 7

It’s been a long season. Since the drop of the puck in Prague on Saturday, October 9, this Boston Bruins have played 99 games. Friday’s Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Tampa Bay Lightning will be game number 100 for the Bruins. Their 100th game of the year, just happens to be the 60 minutes they’d need to win in order to earn a trip to the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time since 1990. It’s been a long season. It’s been an even longer series.

History Won’t Be Made: Bruins’ 3-0 series lead is different this year

By Mike Miccoli, Boston Bruins correspondent

As I type this, the Boston Bruins are about to take a 3-0 series lead against the Philadelphia Flyers.

Again.

For the next two days leading up to game 4 in Boston, I’ll ignore pretty much all sports radio, television programs and fair-weathered friends who’ll no doubt text me something that includes the words “just like last season” based on the reasoning that really, this is not last season.

The Bruins have now officially beaten the Flyers 5-1 in game 3, displaying what could almost be determined as a damn near-perfect game, all topped off with a power-play goal, their first in 30 attempts this postseason. Thomas was brilliant, yet again, as all four lines played effectively, developing chances in the offensive zone and dominating the puck through center ice. Boston was remarkable on the face-off dot winning 43 of 55 draws and landing 24 hits in what seemed like one of their most physical games of the postseason.

This is not last season.