Perfection remains a hollow dream for the Boston Bruins. Winning however has once again become a regularity.
The Bruins won their second straight game yesterday but on a night that represented the first meeting since one of the greatest single game comebacks in Bruins history, the win meant so much more. Fact is last season was somewhat like hockey's 2013 Red Sox. After 7 years out of the playoff spot, the Leafs had fired their coach and replaced him with a clean cut, soft spoken man named Randy Carlyle. They added guys like James Van Riemsdyke and cultivated the talents of Nazim Kadri and Keith Aucoin whom they grabbed via free agency. Long story short this was a team built on potential not reality as was shown by their recent playoff drought. Van Riemsdyke or simple JVR had seen his fair share of success throughout his days with the Flyers scoring 21 goals in the year the Flyers went to the Stanley Cup and then 11 more during that playoff run. In 2012-2013, he banged in 18 goals and if the season were formatted into the normal 82 game jaunt, would have been on pace for nearly 31 goals. As for their up and coming center: Nazim Kadri was taking part in his first full season as a Leaf and soared right from the get go putting in 18 goals of his own and, like Van Riemsdyke putting himself on pace for a 31 goal 82 game season.
No one expected that the Leafs would make the playoffs in 2013 and so they were like the Red Sox. Come the end of the season they had made the playoffs, and so they were like the Red Sox. The Leafs finished 1 spot behind the Bruins in the standings and faced them in the first round bringing joy to their town and reviving the notion of postseason success that had previously run rampant in a city that to date has won 13 Stanley Cups.
They snapped troubling winless streaks grabbing their first playoff win at home in almost 10 years in Game Six of the series. But above all they stormed back from a 3-1 series deficit and after blasting Boston in game 6 they came to Beantown knowing that a win would put them through to the semifinals. That is where the similarities with the Red Sox live and die. While the 2013 Sox never failed in situations of intense magnitude, the Leafs chocked even after leading 4-1 in the 3rd.
We all know what happened in the last 10 minutes of that Game Seven that will forever be immortalized in Bruins history. Down by 3 late in the 3rd, Nathan Horton started the rally and was soon followed by tallies from Milan Lucic and then, with 52 seconds left in the game, Patrice Bergeron who would also go on to win it all in OT.
"It seemed like it brought a little bit of emotion back to our team because it felt like a bit of a dead game on our end," said Lucic referencing a 2nd period penalty that seemed to ignite the flame for Boston. "You've got to give them credit, the way Toronto played in that Game 7. They didn't give us many chances in the first 50 minutes and we weren't able to get anything going."
However, 6 months later, the win means nothing. The Bruins did not win the Stanley Cup that year and when the Leafs came to town for their long awaited rematch that occurred Saturday night, the tables were turned. The Leafs were 3 points ahead of the Bruins in the standings and the Bruins found themselves a lowly 5th seeded team in the Eastern Conference.
The game meant nothing and prior to the first puck drop, the Leafs seconded that notion.
"Most of it is, it was tougher before the season started and waiting all summer and just having to deal with it," Kadri said. "Now that the season is started and we’re 15, 16 games into it, I think a lot of guys have forgotten about it. But it’s still in the back of your head."
What helps even more with the erasing of last season memories is the fact that since then the Leafs do not even look the same. This off-season they have added guys like David Clarkson and Dave Bolland both of which were present in Saturday night's rematch. Clarkson logged 16 minutes of ice time and a fight in the 3-1 Leafs loss.
So much of this game was memories, reignited spells of sadness and surging thirsts for vindication but in the end it was also, just a hockey game. You had guys beating each other senseless and then even more trying to break one another's ribs via any one of the bone crushing hits delivered in this game. You saw shots, you saw saves, you saw drama and above all you saw goals.
"I think they played solid today," Bruins net-minder Tuukka Rask said. Rask finished the night with 33 saves and his second consecutive strong outing between the pipes. "There were a lot of blocked shots [15]. The second period caught us off guard again and we didn't play good as a team, but those five Ds battled hard and did the job."
The defensive core that Rask mentioned there, was already depleted coming into this game as Johnny Boychuck has been out since October 31st with a back injury. Furthermore their defensive depth took yet another hit when Adam McQuaid left the game in the 1st period due to an apparent leg injury. The remaining Bruin defenders, however depleted, did manage to step up and fill the void left by their two fallen comrades. Zdeno Chara logged 28 minutes of ice time in the game and scored Boston's first goal with 5 minutes to go in the first period. That goal was Chara's 3rd of the year and the 13th scored by a Bruin defender this season.
Center Patrice Bergeron would add 2 more goals before all was said and done, handing Boston a comprehensive 3-1 victory at home.
6 months after pulling off the largest comeback in Game Seven history, the Bruins knew that despite the history, this was just another game. Just another game and in turn just another win.
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