Through 90 years of wins losses and thousands of fights, the Boston Bruins have been one of the most timeless teams in the NHL. No matter who is under contract, no matter how much skill they hold on their roster, no matter the situation to be a Boston Bruin you must be tough, and tough not only in the sense of dropping the gloves and fighting but also controlling your emotions and not fighting when the situation does not necessitate that. To be a Bruin you must put the teams needs ahead of your own and focus not on any personal statistic but entirely on the only one that counts. The score.
The Bruins have been this way for each and every season and yet in each and every one of their 2759 wins since season number one, that kind of grit and fearsome intimidation has been amplified to a whole new level but even that is not the limit to the Bruins levels of historic game play. They follow that formula and no matter the opponent refuse to be beaten at their own game. That was the case Saturday afternoon in Boston as a 3 fight, 4 goal thrashing of the Winnipeg Jets was one of the best showings of the Bruin's timeless grit we have seen this season.
Just over 20 seconds into the game, the Bruins kicked things off as an immediate fore-check pinned the Jets deep in their own zone. The Bruins would be penalized for a hit that occurred during that early game charge as a result of a supposed hit to the head by Zdeno Chara but in the end such a hit was of no malicious intent. Chara was going for the puck and in his attempt to make the legal bear hug hit his hand slipped up and made contact with the head of his target. While this was surely a penalty it was not one the Bruins could avoid without sacrificing on ice performance and frankly those are the kind of penalties you have to take. This game like very few nowadays was a perfect one per se when it came to penalties as while Boston did amass a rather gargantuan 21 penalty minutes, 15 of those were assessed as a result of a fight and so therefore did not amount to a manpower difference while 4 more were taken as a result of plays not deemed dirty but rather gritty and will driven.
First of course was that Chara penalty and then second was an even more questionable call made on Danial Pallie for his colliding with Ondrej Pavelech after crashing towards the paint to try to get a stick on a cross crease feed from Jarome Iginla. While the Bruins have always been a rough and tumble team they have never been an undisciplined one. In some of Boston's best games in this past decade, a minuscule amount of time spent playing a man down has been a constant theme throughout. Game Seven of the 2011 Eastern Conference Finals for example, no penalties were called and yet the Bruins pounded 23 hits and won the game in thrilling fashion. Roughly a month after that, when Boston won the Stanley Cup, the Bruins were whistled for just 2 penalties in their 4-0 Game Seven win over Vancouver.
Serving as one last thought on the physical aspects of this game however is the prevalence of that physical play. In Thursday's game Boston hurled 22 hits and connected huge on 2 of them. Early in the 3rd period, defencemen, Johnny Boychuck seemed to snag Winnipeg forward Mark Schefile in his sights and as the charging puck carrier neared the Jets blue line, Boychuck did his best to make sure that his opponent did not make it any farther than that. Boychuck laid down a clean strong hit to the chest of Schifile there was nothing more to it than that and yet in a way, there was. In the days of Orr, the days where Boston captured 2 Championships in 3 seasons there were smashers like John Bucyk and Terry O'Reilly and yet there were no enforcers. On a team now devoid of Shawn Thornton, the same can be said about this team that routed the Jets Saturday afternoon.
Some of the best days in Bruins history were those that made up the years 1970-72 as the magic of Bobby Orr, Phill Espisito and Terry O'Reilly made Boston the best team in hockey. 40+ years later this team of Boston Bruins seems to be doing their best to emulate those heroes of the 70's and all of that was showcased Saturday. Following the age old formula of winning in Boston, the Bruins road the excellence of their goaltender, the energy of meaningful fights, the turnovers caused by hits and a scoring touch that was balanced equally between both defense and offence to victory and made things happen just as they always have.
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