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Bruins Vanquish Flyers in OT |
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The Boston Bruins defeated the Philadelphia Flyers by a score of 3-2 this afternoon. This win allows the Bruins to keep their seventh spot in the East and it keeps some distance between the Bruins and the ninth place, and evil, Buffalo Sabres (pending tonight’s Buffalo vs. Toronto game). The Bruins looked slightly different today as they were sporting Jeremy Reich in the line-up instead of Peter Schaefer. The Flyers also looked a little different by the end of the game as they lost Hatcher in the first when he decided to block a shot with what looked like his ankle. I know he’s a tough guy but that looked akin to Happy Gilmore taking baseballs to the head. It was an odd thing to do.
The first period began with the Bruins looking like they were ready to play today. Of course, that hasn’t meant much over the last couple of games. Fortunately, the Bruins would keep up that momentum throughout the first period. No, seriously. They did.
It wasn’t too far into the first period before Shawn Thornton and Riley Cote decided that they didn’t like each other much. The two tough guys started throwing punches with no one really creaming the other person. In order for you to determine who I think won the fight by a slim margin, I’ll leave you with this clue: plant defense mechanism + unit of weight measurement. That oughta keep people stumped for a good bit. The two pet each other on the head after the fight in what I assume/hope was a show of hatred amongst hockey players.
The highlight of the first came when Chuck Kobasew picked up an errant puck - it was errant because of a bad rebound by Biron - that was bouncing through the Flyer’s zone. He let a very nice shot go that beat Biron top shelf. I have to say, I was pretty impressed by how quickly he got the shot off considering how wobbly that puck was. The play was set up by Phil Kessel and Marco Sturm (although it was quite accidental that the puck landed on Kobasew’s stick). What a load off this goal was. It had to have been a big load off for the crowd too as they were “oooh”ing every time the puck came within a few square feet of the Flyer’s goal, scoring chance or not.
There would be no more scoring in the first period but the Flyers had their chances, which came mostly from power-play opportunities. Jeff Carter had a good shot of beating Thomas but Wideman interfered with him enough to prevent Carter from scoring. This caused one of those Flyer power-plays, all of which were pretty scary but surprisingly well defended by the Bruins. Just to end the period on a note of hostility and maybe also to leave us wanting more, Hartnell decided to hit Kessel in a manner that Stuart took exception to. Stuart came to the defense of his q-tip-like buddy and Hartnell and Stuart ended up in a very short scrap. Actually, they almost had a scrap but Hartnell got grabby and Stuart tipped the two of them over. Stuart then sort of lay on Hartnell in what I assume/hope was a show of hatred amongst hockey players.
The second period was not as kind to the Bruins - I bet you’re shocked - as the Flyers came back to lead the game two goals to one. The first goal evened things up between the clubs both score-wise and bad rebound-wise. Thomas had the puck shot in on him fairly lightly on the rush and the puck seemed to take a funny bounce off of his pads and fly into the air. Richards displayed some pretty good hand-eye coordination to bat the puck out of the air while it was still just under the crossbar. This caused a smattering of boos to fall on the players and it caused the need for booze to be ingested by myself. The Flyers, high on life after their last goal, then controlled the pace of the game for the next few minutes until Danny Briere put the puck past Thomas on the rush. There would be a few more scoring chances in the second, most of which were stopped by the goalies and several of which ended up being shots that went wide of the net.
In between the second and third period, I amused myself by listening to Kathryn Tappen attempt to pronounce the names of some of the players in the Nashville vs. Detroit game.
With the third period beginning four-on-four because of two matching hi-sticking penalties that Ward and Upshall took after the whistle in the second, the Bruins would get a four-on-three power play as Modry was sent to the box for tripping Metropolit. This would be the second four-on-three for the Bruins this game and it would be the second one they couldn’t convert on. They almost scored as Murray sent Sturm a cross-crease pass and Sturm fired it into Biron. The puck somehow trickled through Biron and ended up sitting right in front of the goal line. Murray had sauntered backwards after setting Sturm up and so he was watching the play occur from a piece out. When the puck stopped next to the goal-line, I solved a Rubik’s Cube, learnt the German language, and wrote a novel, and then Glen Murray reacted and skated toward the puck. Of course the Flyers beat him there and the puck was cleared from the slot. The Bruins would get the puck back and Kobasew tried a little stuff shot that flew into the netting above the glass. This would prompt the organist to run his finger up the keyboard and cause a little “bloop” noise. What a playful little devil.
Let’s see; what else happened in the third? Well, I got a chuckle when Andy Brickley accidentally began to call the Flyers the Philadelphia Flowers. I thought Flyer fans would really love hearing their team called the Flowers. Other than that, there were some nice saves by Thomas, a tripping call that Ference incurred when the team couldn’t afford one, some give aways (again, one by Ference) in the last two minutes which gave the Flyers some scoring opportunities and then Ference suddenly made up for the absolutely awful game he was playing by tying the game up. Didn’t see that coming, did you? That’s right, Andrew Ference managed, with the B’s goalie pulled, to bounce a shot off of a few players and into the net. That means these teams would need some more time to settle this one.
Early in the OT period, Sturm and Coburn were sent to the box for a little scrum in front of Biron. This would cause some rarely seen three-on-three hockey. The Bruins would put Savard, Wideman and Murray out on the ice and it would almost pay off as Savard set Murray up for a great scoring chance. Unfortunately for Murray, who is struggling more than Kevin Costner trying to do an English accent, Biron robbed him. Ference would do his damndest to ruin the game for the Bruins right after keeping them in it as he let Carter streak towards Thomas. Thomas bailed Ference out, again, and stopped Carter with a pretty good save. Shortly thereafter, Aaron Ward would win the game off of a slapper. That’s the second time he’s done this to the Flyers in this season.
Player evaluations:
Andrew Ference: He’s still shooting the puck right into defenders and he’s still getting caught in the neutral zone too much. His penalty killing in the first was, however, admirable. Ference should never be out on the power-play. He’s just brutal at the point. I would actually rather have Hnidy calling the shots as the PP quarterback (and I would rather have a monkey holding a hockey stick than Hnidy on the PP).
Marc Savard: Savvy was doing some pretty fancy stuff out there, especially in the first. It’s really a shame that none of his line-mates are making proper use of him because Savard has been very shifty.
Tim Thomas: Thomas’ rebound control wasn’t great in the first half of this game but he did have some spectacular saves. As the game went on, he became better and better. His play culminated in a volley of three consecutive saves in the third and a stop on Carter to save the game in OT. That’s the Tim Thomas this club needs right now.
Mark Stuart: Stuart looked a little shaky this game. He was caught out of position a few times. He was still much, much better than Ference or Hnidy but he wasn’t as good as he usually is.
Dennis Wideman: Wideman plays almost thirty minutes and the Bruins win. Wideman plays less than that and the Bruins lose. Is it a coincidence? I don’t think so.
Glen Murray: I don’t want to rag on the guy anymore than I have because I really want him to do well but boy is he ever struggling.
The B’s are back in action tomorrow against Washington.
That’s it for this episode. For the Bruins blog, this is Gerry Bourdeau reminding you to help control the pet population. Have your pets spayed or neutered.
- Gerz
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