I am very surprised the Bruins are moving onto the second round. Sort of. You see, I am not the guy that was calling into 98.5 all season saying the team lacked heart (or in Bostonese: Hahhhhhhhht!) and that I wasn’t renewing my season tickets. I am also definitely not the guy that was saying they don’t have a snowball’s chance in hell at making the playoffs. Not me. No – I am the guy that said, I think they’ll make the playoffs, but get bounced in the first round. I said that when I thought they were going to finish up 8th and play Washington, a team the have matched up very with poorly all season.
When the draw came out as Buffalo, I said Bruins in six. How convenient for me they won in six eh? No, it’s true. Ask Dave, the guy around the corner. He told Miller, Milan and I he thought we’d have a lot more time for walking in about a week the morning after game 1. I told him, nope, Bruins in six. He looked at me like I was crazy. On the other hand, I get the you’re fucking crazy look quite a bit.
The point is, and yes I do have one, the Bruins have picked the best time of the year to play their best hockey. The Bruins just beat the third seeded team featuring arguably the best goalie all season long in Ryan Miller. They accomplished this by following their blueprint for success. Get physical. Don’t get pushed around. Fight. Their compete level was high all series, with the exception of game 5, and their goaltending was stellar. In fact, it was almost too good. The boys are starting to rely on Tuukka Rask a bit too much, and it is affecting their breakout. With the feeling they will get bailed out by the goalie, the passes have been less crisp to start the breakout (Dennis Wideman, I am looking at you) and have subsequently been scored on by Buffalo. They need to tighten that up, if they are to advance to the next round.
I love the way this team is playing right now, and I am impressed they have done this well without some key cogs in the wheel. Marc Savard was cleared today, and will play next round. Dennis Seidenberg is close. I am not sure on Mark Stuart, but he has to be close too. Marco Sturm and Blake Wheeler should be getting the memo the playoffs have started any day now, and can only help this club when that happens. Bottom line is, this is a dangerous club right now, and I would not want to play them next round. Glad I was wrong about you, boys! Go Bruins!