No one likes the Chanuks and yet, whenever they come to Boston, the ensuing game is wholeheartedly dubbed one of the best games of the year.
When Alex Burrows chomped on Patrice Bergeron's finger like it were a sausage, we hated his team and he. When Aaron Rome most nearly killed Nathan Hornton and effectively wiped out the physical facet of Hornton's game, we hated his team and he. And yet, when we saw that 4-0 Bruins trashing of the Chanuks in Game Seven of the 2011 Stanley Cup we cheered and proclaimed it the greatest game in years. And yet when we saw the infamous 8 on 8 brawl from the 2012 rematch of that game, we cheered and proclaimed it the greatest game in years.
If you did not catch on with that paragraph, I will say this: whenever the Bruins and Chanuks have got together these past 4 years, there has been a story to tell. But nevertheless, Tuesday's game in Boston was different. In the 2011 Stanley Cup the story of that historic series' first few games was the evolution of the dirty play. One year later when we arrived in Boston for the Stanley Cup rematch, the story was the biggest brawl since when 8 Chanuks jumped Shawn Thornton and just started pounding away before the Bruins team managed to get bodies in to help. And even this year, there was the renewed calls of "Brad Marchand is a dirty player" that ran rampant as the Bruin forward raised his hands to the sky in a meme of his hoisting the Stanley Cup above his head.
But now, there was no controversy, no cheap shots, no concussions and no taunting. Just 5 penalties were called from the start to finish of this game and none of them involved anything more haenous than a hooking minor and yet, these players involved in this wonderful game were not playing any sort of laid back style of play.
From the first puck drop on, Johnny Boychuck was a 1 man wrecking crew smashing 3 out of Boston's 27 hits, adding an assist on a miracle pass to Danial Pallie as well as logging 2 shots on goal in upwards of 24 minutes of ice time.
“I was really tired,” Boychuk said. “I’m not going to lie – we were out there battling and I just looked up and Danny was coming off the bench, and I just had to make the pass. It’s not as easy as it looks, especially when you’re at the end of a long, long shift.”
But he was not alone in his brilliance. Much like Boychuck, Jarome Iginla was a man contributing to the win in multiple ways than just in goal scoreing. After grabbing his 600th career assist on Lucic's goal in the 1st period, Iginla kept on his inhuman scoreing pace when he added a bang in goal that eventually would be logged as the game winning goal midway through the second.
Without a doubt it was the sequence that ended with Iginla's 2nd period goal that effectively swung things fully in favor of the Bruins. With the Bruins on the power play and their lead still sitting at just 1-0, Danial Sedin grabbed a Lucic giveaway and skated in alone down towards Tuukka Rask. In any other scenario against most other goalies, that breakaway would have and should have tied the game. But Tuukka Rask was back to his shot stopping ways and simply got down and made the save.
“Thankfully,” said Milan Lucic when asked about the Rask save “Tuukka made the save.”
“Those are usually the momentum-changers and game-changers,” Rask said. “You want to make that save more often than not. Today it was good that I did and we scored right after – that was really huge.”
As Rask and his fans reveled in this game saving stop however, those who love the goals in hockey soon took over as David Krejci grabbed the puck at the face off dot and turned up ice. After Krejci passed to Lucic and Lucic dropped the saucer pass back to Chara who was pinching in towards the goal, an out of place Chanuks penalty killing unit realized that they had left Jarome Iginla with far too much space when you take into account his all-star qualities. But he did not care. In true hall of fame caliber play, Iginla barely moved as he poked the shot past Roberto Luango.
The Bruins have now played 10 games against the Chanuks since 2011 and frankly up until this one the large majority of them have been dirty ones. We have seen finger bites, career changing cheap shots and then humiliating taunting of the Chanuks. But Tuesday in Boston we simply were watching a great hockey game. Tuukka Rask came back to life in this game turning in his best outing on over a month all while Jarome Iginla continued his scoreing dominance and Johnny Boychuck admittedly decided he wanted to personally shred the Chanuks to pieces. The fans were cheering, Roberto Luango was crying and yet the Bruins and Chanuks brains escaped the ice intact. This was a hard hitting, bone splitting game and yet nobody was injured.
This was a hard fought, wonderful hockey game where both teams hate each other with a passion and in this era, even with all the history that stems from Bruins/Canadians, we find ourselves 1 or 2 good games like this away from being forced to recognize Bruins/Chanuks as a new, nasty hockey rivalry .
When Alex Burrows chomped on Patrice Bergeron's finger like it were a sausage, we hated his team and he. When Aaron Rome most nearly killed Nathan Hornton and effectively wiped out the physical facet of Hornton's game, we hated his team and he. And yet, when we saw that 4-0 Bruins trashing of the Chanuks in Game Seven of the 2011 Stanley Cup we cheered and proclaimed it the greatest game in years. And yet when we saw the infamous 8 on 8 brawl from the 2012 rematch of that game, we cheered and proclaimed it the greatest game in years.
If you did not catch on with that paragraph, I will say this: whenever the Bruins and Chanuks have got together these past 4 years, there has been a story to tell. But nevertheless, Tuesday's game in Boston was different. In the 2011 Stanley Cup the story of that historic series' first few games was the evolution of the dirty play. One year later when we arrived in Boston for the Stanley Cup rematch, the story was the biggest brawl since when 8 Chanuks jumped Shawn Thornton and just started pounding away before the Bruins team managed to get bodies in to help. And even this year, there was the renewed calls of "Brad Marchand is a dirty player" that ran rampant as the Bruin forward raised his hands to the sky in a meme of his hoisting the Stanley Cup above his head.
But now, there was no controversy, no cheap shots, no concussions and no taunting. Just 5 penalties were called from the start to finish of this game and none of them involved anything more haenous than a hooking minor and yet, these players involved in this wonderful game were not playing any sort of laid back style of play.
From the first puck drop on, Johnny Boychuck was a 1 man wrecking crew smashing 3 out of Boston's 27 hits, adding an assist on a miracle pass to Danial Pallie as well as logging 2 shots on goal in upwards of 24 minutes of ice time.
“I was really tired,” Boychuk said. “I’m not going to lie – we were out there battling and I just looked up and Danny was coming off the bench, and I just had to make the pass. It’s not as easy as it looks, especially when you’re at the end of a long, long shift.”
But he was not alone in his brilliance. Much like Boychuck, Jarome Iginla was a man contributing to the win in multiple ways than just in goal scoreing. After grabbing his 600th career assist on Lucic's goal in the 1st period, Iginla kept on his inhuman scoreing pace when he added a bang in goal that eventually would be logged as the game winning goal midway through the second.
Without a doubt it was the sequence that ended with Iginla's 2nd period goal that effectively swung things fully in favor of the Bruins. With the Bruins on the power play and their lead still sitting at just 1-0, Danial Sedin grabbed a Lucic giveaway and skated in alone down towards Tuukka Rask. In any other scenario against most other goalies, that breakaway would have and should have tied the game. But Tuukka Rask was back to his shot stopping ways and simply got down and made the save.
“Thankfully,” said Milan Lucic when asked about the Rask save “Tuukka made the save.”
“Those are usually the momentum-changers and game-changers,” Rask said. “You want to make that save more often than not. Today it was good that I did and we scored right after – that was really huge.”
As Rask and his fans reveled in this game saving stop however, those who love the goals in hockey soon took over as David Krejci grabbed the puck at the face off dot and turned up ice. After Krejci passed to Lucic and Lucic dropped the saucer pass back to Chara who was pinching in towards the goal, an out of place Chanuks penalty killing unit realized that they had left Jarome Iginla with far too much space when you take into account his all-star qualities. But he did not care. In true hall of fame caliber play, Iginla barely moved as he poked the shot past Roberto Luango.
The Bruins have now played 10 games against the Chanuks since 2011 and frankly up until this one the large majority of them have been dirty ones. We have seen finger bites, career changing cheap shots and then humiliating taunting of the Chanuks. But Tuesday in Boston we simply were watching a great hockey game. Tuukka Rask came back to life in this game turning in his best outing on over a month all while Jarome Iginla continued his scoreing dominance and Johnny Boychuck admittedly decided he wanted to personally shred the Chanuks to pieces. The fans were cheering, Roberto Luango was crying and yet the Bruins and Chanuks brains escaped the ice intact. This was a hard hitting, bone splitting game and yet nobody was injured.
This was a hard fought, wonderful hockey game where both teams hate each other with a passion and in this era, even with all the history that stems from Bruins/Canadians, we find ourselves 1 or 2 good games like this away from being forced to recognize Bruins/Chanuks as a new, nasty hockey rivalry .
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