Bring On The Habs

The Bruins quest to return to the Stanley Cup finals for the second year in a row, and for the third time in the last four years, took a big step forward this past Saturday when they beat the Red Wings 4-2 to win the series decisively 4-l and setting up a second round series against the rival Canadiens.What made this series encouraging from a Bruins fan perspective is that besides the power play being a strength, compared to past playoffs where it was a glaring weakness, is that this series was never in doubt even after they lost game 1.

While the playoffs began with a 1-0 loss for the Bruins, the B's responded with a convincing 4-1 in game 2 and then took a stronghold on the series by winning 2 games, including coming back from a 2 goal deficit in game 4, in Joe Louis Arena.  If there is one thing we have learned about the Bruins over the past four seasons is that they are never fazed by any deficit whether it be in a game or in a series. The Bruins continue to play within their system and more times than not their depth proves to be too much for the opposition.

It certainly does help to have a Vezina trophy finalist in Tuukka Rask between the pipes, but what makes the Black and Gold so dangerous is their ability to wear down an opponent over 60 minutes.  The Bruins may not have one individual flashy goal scorer, but they roll out three lines on a nightly basis that are all capable of scoring and more importantly are probably the best three lines in hockey at playing two-way hockey, with Selke trophy finalist Patrice Bergeron leading the way.  If any stat is indicative of showing the depth of the Bruins is that in their five first round games, they had ten different goal scorers.

Another encouraging sign for the Bruins is the one thing that worried fans the most coming into the playoffs, being the youth on defense, has steadily improved as the regular season ended and the playoffs began.  Dougie Hamilton, Torey Krug, Matt Bartkowski and Kevan Miller have all been playing some of the best hockey of their young careers as of late and are slowly but surely making Bruins fans forget about injured defenseman Dennis Seidenberg.  Add in the fact that Justin Florek, who came out of nowhere to fill in admirably for Chris Kelly on the third line, and Carl Soderberg playing as well as probably any third liner in the NHL, and the future looks bright for the Bruins, not only in these playoffs but for the years to come as well.

What makes these playoffs for the Bruins potentially extra special is the B's have the chance to go through the entire playoffs playing only Original Six teams if the Bruins can beat the Canadiens this series, the New York Rangers in the Eastern Conference Finals and then potentially the Chicago Blackhawks in the Stanley Cup Finals.  However since I do believe the Canadiens pose the biggest threat to the Bruins in the Eastern Conference, I won't look too far ahead.  Montreal played the Bruins better than any opponent this year and regardless of the year they always play the B's tough in the playoffs.  Due to the fanaticism of their fans, playing in the Bell Centre is always one of the toughest arenas to come out of victorious as a visiting opponent, and because of that having home ice advantage may come in handy in this series more than any other series the B's may potentially have to play in these playoffs.

Whenever the Bruins and Canadiens face-off against each other, whether it be in the regular season or playoffs, it is different than any opponent the B's play. For instance last year when the Bruins played the Blackhawks in the finals I truly believe there was mutual respect amongst both franchises and fans.  One only had to see the ad Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz took out in the Boston Globe after Chicago won the Stanley Cup to see the mutual admiration between the cities and teams. When the Bruins and Canadiens play each other however there is legitimate animosity between the fans and teams, and that's what makes this rivalry so intense.  In the early 2000's I think it is safe to say there was no greater rivalry in professional sports than the Yankees and Red Sox, but in the past few years it appears that rivalry has become diluted, and from a Boston fan's perspective I think the Bruins and Canadiens rivalry has only intensified since then.  One only had to see how fanatical Canadiens fans can be when they asked for Zdeno Chara to be arrested after his hit (pictured below) on Max Pacioretty in 2011.  If you are a Bruins fan I highly recommend you tune into some Montreal sports talk radio this week and during the series, because it is highly entertaining just to see how crazy their fans can be.  I fully admit Boston sports fans can be loud and obnoxious, but Montreal fans tend take things to the next level. 

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Since the Canadiens and Bruins finished their games in four and five games respectively, there is a chance that we may have to wait until next Saturday for the series to start, but if you are a hockey fan, or just a sports fan in general ,I hope you spend your evenings this week watching the other first round games.  My previous Rant was about how great the NHL Playoffs are and this past weekend proved that again.  Last night in particular the Anaheim Ducks looked down and out for almost the entire game, yet in the final 2 minutes of regulation  with their goalie pulled they were able to score 2 goals to tie the game and then ended up winning both the game and series overtime.  Needless to say these playoffs have been nuts.  

I cannot emphasize enough what a special time of year this is if you are a sports fan, hell the NBA playoffs are even extremely entertaining so far, and as a B's fan I cannot wait for the next chapter in the Bruins-Canadiens rivalry to begin.

P.S.  I was fortunate enough to attend the game 5 of the Bruins-Red Wings this past Saturday and once again I was blown away by the energy in the building.  In my previous Rant I mentioned that an NHL Playoff game is one of the best sporting events to attend in person and this Saturday only further enhanced my opinion on that matter.  Below are a few of the pictures I took.